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SDA-RF-CH-4.1
'J
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN
UNICEF AND IYC
Statement by
Henry R. Labouisse
Executive Director of UNICEF
•
There is an important difference between the scope of
UNICEF’s work and that of IYC, in that UNICEF is concerned with
children of developing countries while IYC will be concerned with
children of all countries. While the characteristics and the
needs of children are universal, there are, unfortunately,
significant differences in the dggree to which their needs are
being met.
In my opinion, the Year should remind us that all
countries, are to some degree developing countries, in the sense
that they all have enormous imperfections and faults - and this is
perhaps more true with regard to the ways in which our diverse
societies, world-wide, treat - and sometimes neglect - their
children.
The major aims of the year may be summarized as follows:
to encourage all countries, rich and poor
to review their programmes for the well-being of children,
and to mobilize support for national and local action
programmes according to each country's conditions, needs
and priorities;
to heighten awareness of children's special needs among
decisionmakers and the public;
to promote recognition of the vital link between
programmes for children, on the one hand, and economic
and social progress on the other;
to spur specific, practical measures to benefit children,
in both the short and long term, on the national level*
If these aims (are to be achieved, positive action must
be taken without delay by/ governments
throughout the world.
/
-x-x-x-
0
2
The child shall have full opportunity for play and recreation,
which should.be directed to the same purpose as education; society
and the public authorities shall endeavour to promote the enjoyment
of this right.
Principle 8
THE Child shall in all circumstances be among the first to receive
protection and relief.
Principle 9
THE CHILD shall be protected against all forms of neolect
cruelty and exploitation. He shall not be the subject of’traffic
in any form.
yxauxu,
J
Principle 10
ZoriS1110 f?3*1 be Protected from practices which may foster
be brough? ^1inEspiritnof°i!;derSrnriif
tScfiraination- He shall
c^n^iSusKi^’t^rhir5 uni"e^?bro^erho^ raa^eInfSlindShip
se^ic1?UofTis^ll^mln*197
tal<?ntS sh°uld be devoted to the
RIGHTS OF CHILDREN
A. Constitutional Frovisions
!• Fundamental Rights
Article 15 (3)
The State may make any special provision for (women and) children
in regard to ]prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion,
race, caste, sex or place of birth.
Article 24
Prohibition of the employment of children in factories, mi nes
or hazardous employment below the age of 14 years.
2. Directive Principles
Article 39(e) and (f)
The State must direct its policy towards securing ’inter-alia *
economic necessity to enter
vocations unsuited to their age and strength and that childhood and
yout are protected against exploitation and against moral and
material abandonment.
i
that children are not
+V.-.+
forcec3
~
• »vr"
jj
v 14
i iv
i. i 4
V/
11
JL L" I
Article 45
The State, must endeavour to provide free <anc’ compulsory education
for all children until they complete 14I’ years of age*
B. The National Policy for Children, 1974
SXh^e°
^=lesl, cental
1. A comprehensive health programme for all children.
fOr ChU<llen “ith
anf’
tj"
preschool children.
“Meet of
education
for
->hilSnSotaf9?ha:10"
ision of informal education for
5. Out of school education for children who do not have
access to
formal education in schools.
oi KSatiSnal
spjrts and other types
schools, community centres and other suc^inSl^Uons^ 111'8 in
pct^r^^'o^nHy^L^Sle^1:.^."? to economically weaker
equality of opportunity.
ecu^o castes, and tribes, to ensure
who have'become°delinquents ’ o^hPP^f
rehabilitation ‘
for children
otherwise in distress? 0 S* °r been forcec' to take to begging
I or are
9. Protection of children
against neglect, cruelty anc’ exploitation.
... 2
2
1O» Banning of employment in hazardous occupations 4nd in heavy
work for all children under 14.
,11. Provision of facilities for special treatment, edudation,
rehabilitation and care of physically handicapped, emotionally
disturbed or mentally retarded children.
12. Priority for the protection and relief Bifxh children in times
of distress and national calamity.
J’u* Special Programmes to spot, encourage and assist fis <fiifted
children, particularly those belonging to weaker sections of the
community.
14. Amendment of existing laws so that in all legal disputes,
the interests of children are given paramount consideration.
neighbourhood, and community environment.
LEGISLATION
Legislative support for child welfare services in India is found in
the Children Acts of the various States. These laws have a special
relevance to the protection and rehabilitation of socially handi
capped children such as neglected, destitute, victimised,
delinquent and exploited children.
The biggest drawback of the Children Acts is that the ’child’ is
defined differently from State to State. In Madhya Pradesh,
Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, a child means a person under 16 years,
in Saurashtra and West Bengal a person under 18 years, in
Telengana a person under 16 years, and in the rest of Andhra Pradesh
a person under 14 years. In the Union Territories, a child is
defined as a boy under 16 years or a girl under 18 years. As
inter—State movement of exploited children cannot be prevented,
these laws are not as effective as they could have been.
Some States, like Nagaland, Orissa, Sikkim and Tripura, have yet
to enact any children *s legislation. The Union Territories of
Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Arunachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Dadra
and Nagar Haveli, Lakshadweep and Mizoram have no institutional
arrangements yet to apply the Children Act of I960.
Protecting the Working Child
The main thrust of the Indian laws concerning child labour has been
on the minimum age of employment, medical examination of children
and prohibition of night work. In each of these directions, the
standards stipulated are below the international levels laid down
by the International Labour Organisation. Enforcement of the law is
renderee difficult by a combination of factors: economic back
wardness forcing the family to supplement its income by letting the
children work; lack of educational facilities; the unorganised
nature of a good part of the economy; and the smallness of most
manufacturing units.
Minimum Age
A major deficiency in the protective legislation is the fact that
thouoh1f+n?c1+hcflX^n9 a mirilmurn.a9e for employment in agriculture,
?aln occuPa'tlon m the country and the bulk of
1
chile.labour, 78.' per cent of it, is engaged in this occupation.
A minimumage has been fixed however at 12 years for plantations
14 years in factories and 12-14 years in the case of non-industrial em
®u\thls
th' unregula?"d: foj
aCt itsclf applies only to factories employing
worKers above a minimum number.
x
Medical Fitness
As ior
for legal safeguards for the health of child workers, the law
AS
-.I... of children upto 18 years of age and that
r$xamination
for industrial employment
only,
too
for
for medical
medical fitn;s"s:-'^
fitness. ;...J “ib«;"irnoBi^n?„SrX"?So?rJeJ?cid1do'’n
examination of children working in theJ non-industrial sector.
Adoption of Children
The Adoption of Children Bill 1
in Parliament in 1972.
is to provide
but has yet to be enacted. Itswasaimintroduced
,
.
an enabling law for
H —' destitut*.
all Indians seeking to adopt
neglected
a^one5'-.
and orphaned children in the country. This was’in
pursuance
of the
Directive principle in the Constitution u
preventing
the
and
moral
of
material abandonment of children (ArticleJ 39 f).
...2
2
The existing Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act covers only that
community.
Child Marriage
Throughout the 50 years of its existence, the Sharda Act (The Child
Marriage Restraint Act) has been an ineffective legislative
showpiece. Although it was meant to prohibit child marriage
altogether, the question of validity of a child marriage solemnised
in violation of the statutory age requirements remained outside
its scope.
The Child Marriage Restraint Amendment Act 1978 raises the minimum
age of marriage from 18 to 21 for boys and 15 to 18 for girls
Even with this amendment, the violation of the law would not
affect the validity of the marriage once it has been conducted
tout only entail penal consequences. Offences under the Sharda Act
have now become cognizable and even Muslim, Parsi and Jewish
communities come within its purview even though it does not affect
their personal laws. Parental consent no longer exempts a child
marriage from the provisions of the amended law. This was a
loophole in the original law.
Experience shows that legal changes may not cause marriages to be
delayer, unless constructive opportunities are provided to the youno
permissibleSlgearria9GS
S0Ught t0 be PostPoned till the legally
CHILDREN IN NEED OF DAY-CARE
Many of India ’s children are neglected during early childhood for
lack of day-care services. Shortage of such services often pulls
an older sister out of school to shoulder the task, or forces a
working mother to take small children to work sites, where they face
added hazards.
The 1971 Census lists 16.6 million rural children and 2 million
urban children less than 6 years old, whose mothers are workers.
c’ata also lists 31 million women workers, of whom about
20 million belong to the most needy sections of society. About
94 per cerrt of women labourers work in the unorganised sector
where employers do not provide any services for their children.
Day-care facilities for the children of these working mothers remain
a major unmet need.
What the Law Says
The law does provide for day-care services for children of certain
categories of women workers, but many employers do not fulfil leaal
obligations. Women working in the unorganised sector, or in small
establishments are not covered by such provisions. Nor are women
as clerks, teachers, nurses, and similar lower-level white collar
employees•
Under the Contract Labour Regulation and Abolition Act of 1970
a contractor must provide a creche wherever 20 or more women are
employed as contract labour. This is seldom done.
Under the Factories Act (Section 48), every factory ordinarilv
+0.or mora Woraeh workers has been obliged to provide and
mewtx maintain creches for children under 6 years old
St this
violate^ aS In ?973 th£e wre
f '
J101 ?
only 901 factories in the country providing this facility
With
nhMnn+?rCeKen^K°^ th6 factories (Amenrment) Act of 1976* the
Oo“a^o"rk:S.eXtenC'eC' “ every
The Plantation Labour Act of 1951 stinula+oe
stipulates +h-.+
that ~
a of these
??e"?re Strict
s
enforcement
j are <
scope of these laws.
* + + *
i
•
JUVENILE DELINQUENCY
Juvenile crime accounts for 3.4 per cent of all cognizable crime
in India. Its rate is estimated to be 6.4 per 100,000 population.
Contributing Factors
There seems to be a strong relationship between poverty anc1 the
incidence of juvenile crime. It is found that the lower the
income of the family, the higher the incidence of juvenile crime.
Among the children arrested for crimes under the Indian Penal
Code, it was found that 83 per cent belonged to families where the
joint income of parents and guardians was less than Rs.150 per
n°n^nA
per cent of families whose income was between Rs.150 and
Rs.499 per month; 3.12 per cent to families whose income was
between Rs.500 and Rs.1000 per month and 0.36 per cent to families
whose income was above Rs.1000 per month.
Among the children apprehended, it was found that 48 per cent were
illiterate, 34.6 per cent were below the primary level of
schooling and 11.5 per cent were above the primary but below the
higher secondary level.
Pattern of Crime
Among the crimes committed by juvenile delinquents are murder,
kidnapping, abduction, dacoity, robbery, burglary, theft, riot,
criminal breach of trust and cheating. The largest percentaoe of
andGtheGTndt mGSRfM1 und®r+the Gambling Act, the Prohibition9Act
anc rpe Indian Railways Act.
The Spread
About 30 per cent of juvenile crime was reported in Maharashtra,
followed by 18 per cent in Gujarat, 16 per cent in Tamil Nadu and
11.5 per cent in Madhya Pradesh.
Among the children apprehended, it was found that 17 per cent had
been apprehended for repeated crimes.
Enforcement of Laws
Most of the Children Acts have a clause for providing a 'place of
safety' where child offenders can be kept in custody separately
from the adult offenders. LDespite this, it is estimated that in
the various States and Union
.--.I Territories of India, there are
10,000 children under 16 years of age confined to prisons along
with adult offenders.
m?st St?teE f'oe, not mention anythino
etention for long periods without being brought before a Magistrate.
# * #
WORKING CHILDREN
Lack of data makes it difficult to arrive at a reliable figure of
the number of children pushed into the labour force by economic
pressures. The 1971 Census listed 10»7 million children as workers*
but estimates incicate that the total child labour force may be as
high as 30 million.
If it is assumed that 5 to 10 per cent of India’s children are
working, India has the largest number of children workers in the
world. These children constitute about 6 per cent of the total
labour force m the country.
Of the 10.7.million children classified as workers in 1971 Census
data, 7.9 million were boys and 2.8 million girls. This data does
not seem to adequately refledt the role of girls in the familv-blsed
economy. The proportion of girls to female9adult workers hasbeen
Su
Per Cent hi9her
the P-P»rUo”o?aLyb:etno
Where they work
farmGrelated1workb°orGrn +hfk?
The I?aj?rity are in agriculture or
sector of th'e^co^0^ ln
’^l^SosFwSing^n^he^ganised0"
£er C<?nt are in
manufacturing and processing iobs a nd
hold and other industries wi+h+1^2 another 6 per cent in house
rGSt engai9ed in trade, commerce,
transport and sb storage.’
2flectedri°fCe““rdatr^Yr''
Jh\u™r9anlsed sector is „ot
accounts for children working as domc.+f guessec* at* This sector
hotels, restaurants
2
domestic servants, helpers in
hawkers, newspaoer Vendors , "porters shoe°?hine%Similar establishments;
and unloading goods. Their hours of^nrk 10 bfGaklng stones, loading
and uncertain, their workino and
k 5?xlong’ their wa9es low
1Vlng c°ndltl°ns bad. They are at
the mercy of their employe??.
Where They Come From
toCrSigar?asbG ThZy co^s^iS??^^
c!nt of
belong
areas ?on?titit?*1.8hpeJ c^nt^thl Sf1! WOukers/ounAnrii?bin
Places the in?id^c of chfld^At0 child Potion.
o ld labour as highest in
Andhra Pradesh, which accounts for
child labour rirce, and "S ceS of
°,f ?dla ’=
The next highest recorded incidence is’in gdhSa^d^ a^issa.
early e"1Pl°Y"»nt , - - Dat5UClidlcates1thateasSn>anveas°Sa9e
•
------ 1 seems to
ipricates that as
a<a
of Children.
are workers. This
fou? times
is four
^imes^he/th1 °+fHthe ^i^^en
of
This is
migrants
populations.
er
the rate among settled
.. ..2
2
What It feans
Child labour deprives children of educational opportunities,
minimises their chances for vocational training, hampers their
intellectual development and by forcing them into the army of
unskilled labourers, condemns them to low wages all their lives.
It is estimated that if workers under 18 years of age in India
could be taken out of the labour force and provided education and
vocational training, some 15 to 20 million unemployed adults
would be able to find jobs on standard wages.
Exploitation
Existing legislation covering child workers in factories and
establishments is not being adequately enforced. There are also
areas where no legislative coverage exists, and others where the
laws themselves permit early childhood employment*
@ @ @
THE DEPRIVED CHILD
The Submerged Segment
An estimated 46 per cent of the population live below the poverty
line - 48 per cent in the rural areas and 41 per cent in the urban
areas. This means that approximately 108 million children live
in varying degrees of destitution, 90.5 million of them in the
villages ans 17.4 million in the towns.
The Depressed Classes
There is a predictable overlapping of the child population livina
in poverty and that belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Tribes.
The vast majority of children belonging to the Scheduled Castes
Srh^„?b5rpe? CGnt
total child Population belongs to the
,Among the 33.5 million Scheduled
CastP
StiiL hiJdIu ’ 29,6 million live in the rural areas, and 14.8
thG^G-i5rG beiow 6 years of age. All but 500,000 of the
Tso
7579miliiAnnofh+idrGn °f ^^uled Tribes live in rural areas, and
7.7 million of them are under 6 years old.
Destitute and Vagrant Children
thJ
nuKJ'for
Karnataka and Orrissa have the next largest incidence of beaaarv
indiaaDushedri +^\1S like|Y that the actual number of child?enYln
in beggar Colonies, where kidnapped waifs^0^0™6* expl°Ration
strays are maimed and
multilated and forced to b^
& »
beggar barons.
9* ThGlr Garnings go to the so-called
2Throw-away * Babies
born'eve^y^ear befo™’’■Xo^^ay'"babllr' T 2*
21 n,illion
birth due to various social and pLnnm^!’ abandoned soon after
estimates place the number of destitute0 pre®surGS’ Social Workers'
children at between one and f-ivoSrJ^UtG ’ orPhanec? ancJ abandoned
reflecting the greater value
’
Children of Migrants
placebo plac^i^sea^ch^^wSrk^15^^6 |!bourers moving from
casual daily wages or short-term* seasonal^mni managG to get more than
the Census listed 4.2 million rhfld™« £!? employment.
In 1971,
place of
Of 't*h©c;ci *5 q
“
chi1^" — £ thfe°rrix :rh:ansr:rex-- aillion
Protecteda>«ater”sJjplyJ1XlthJutUproDernho 1?ve1- ThGV do without
services, and are often outsiHc PfoperJ?ousing, sanitation or sewaoe
G radlUS of medical and schooling
facilities. Migrants® ch?£»
?TSet’ t0
“r
9
disability,
existence. Formal education
barely flgures in Seir Uves
..2
2
Both boys and girls of migrant families take up petty jobs to
add to the meagre family earnings. An urban study showed that
while about 19 per cent of the children of settled city-dwellers’
were workers, child labour among migrant children was as high
as 80 per cent. There is no comparable data available on the
labour rate among children of rural migrants.
ftoor nutrition, low resistance to disease and insanitary conditions
nLt0 uPdermlne the physical status of the migrant child.
While the urban infant mortality rate is otherwise 83 per
sof”6 urban slums and migrant settlements it is as hioh
y
as 140 per 1000.
-x-x-x-
HANDICAPPED CHILDREN
Four major disabilities afflict at least three million children
in the country. Estimates list 2 million mentally retarded,
800,000 blind, 500,000 orthopaedically handicapped and 200,000 deaf
children.
These modest estimates do not include the large number of children
who are marginally or mildly handicapped. While about 12,000 to
14,000 children go blind every year due to Vitamin A deficiency,
about 10 to 15 per cent of all children suffer from night blindness.
Available data does not give a clear picture of the actual
incidence of these and other handicaps.
\
Services and facilities for the education, training and rehabilitation
of handicapped children are grossly inadequate. Existing services
cater to only 4 per cent of the physically handicapped, 2 per cent of
the blind, 2 percent of the deaf and barely 0.2 per cent of the known
mentally retarded child population. There are only 800 voluntary
organisations and State institutions offering educational and
training facilities to about 30,000 handicapped children.
Prevailing social attitudes towards mental and physical handicaps
are an additional problem for the handicapped child.
EDU CATION
A Directive Principle of the Indian Constitution (Article 45) lays
down that the State shall endeavour to provide free and compulsory
education for all children until they complete 14 years of age.
This was to have been achieved within a decade, but has not been
realised so far.
The progress has been uneven from State to State, as between the
urban and rural areas and as between boys and girls.» For example,
example
all urabin areas have facilities for elementary and middle school
education. In rural areas, 80 per cent of the habitations have a
primary school within 1.5 km and over 60 per cent of the habitations
have a micdle school within 3 km. Out of a total of 575,926 villages
m the country, it is estimated that about 48,566 are not served
by any school at all.
Education is free for all children upto the secondary stage in 12
States and Union Territories. In 8 other States and Union
Territories, it is free for all children upto the middle school stage.
Another 8 States offer free edudation*formal! children^uptothe
micole school stage, and upto a few more years only for girls. Two
States offer free education for all children upto the primary school
level ano one of them offers an additional few years of free
education for girls.
School Enrolment
Approximately 4.5 million children are being offered one kind of pre
‘
“
primary programme or the other. “These
barely 5 per cent of the
form
population m the 3-6 years age group and are mainly from the
better-off sections of^society.
Enrolment in schools has been slower than expected. Only 80.9 per
children m the 6-11 years age group, 37.0 per cent in the
11^14 years age group and 20.9 per cent children in the 14-17 years
age group are enrolled in schools. The enrolment level for girls
If
han that fOr ^°ys- W1116 the enrolment of boys
6-11
it is onlv g^oup,
of
the
years
is 97.5 perthecent,
per cent for girls age
of group
thatgroup.
Jllwyearrage
9zi%e^rOlrnGn+ of
Per cent, but that of girls is only
is
?fz5i7eroCenV -lu6
«^ens further at the high school level Y
b°YS at 28-3 per Cent and that
of
Drop-Out Rates
The school enrolment figures provide only
education, another being the rate of dropping out^o^echojl”" 'S
SassV^^oi?? 24hie1^mehOclast:rVSrS Jhe^p^t" ££ Cf°'"Plete
a reuaJhhc?a:rv.OfT^::y7j%?^’t*?
leave school without attaining functional literacy!
ci t
9
V?1*
enrolled
HEALTH
Children in India face many health hazards, and many die young
for lack of timely health care.
Forty per cent of all deaths in India occur among children below
5 years of age. Of these deaths, about half are of children less
than a year old.
In the lowest age group (0-12 months), 50 per cent of deaths are due
to dysentery, diarrhoea, respiratory diseases and gastro-intestinal
disorcers, In the 1-4 year group, mortality seems to be specifically
related to respiratory, digestive and parasitic diseases. These in
turn are aggravated by poor environmental sanitation, over-crowded
living conditions, and malnutrition. Ignorance of simple health
precautions also takes its toll.
estimated that 30 per cent of all school-going children are
suffering from one or other ailment. Of children’s illnesses treated
at health centres, 56 per cent are reported to be related to intesti
nal infections, respiratory complaints and nutritional disorders.
rXLollmGn*S anc
due t0 poor diGt an^ P°or hygiene are also
Eruin? m-ny ^ildren needlessly go blind in early childhood.
Tuberculosis is widespread in small children.
Health Services
pGr C!ntx°£ Ino’ians live in rural and tribal areas, but
only 30 percent of hospital beds and 20 percent of doctors in the
country are available there.
-.ocrors in we
Medical care for the rural population is provided bv aovprn™=n+
ce?tres* Saoh centre is ^cted to I^^om
hPln0??? 80»000 people, spread over a hundred villages, with the
auxiliary nurse-Kif?“r™?iSaOT00peopleein°w':'i; JSC-,
9hkmaVean?eabou?S7eo?t"e%n ‘S'
Vl&?.a^ra^.r«iu0
and the health centre9!!’
Y
attention because 50 per cent of vill™ JoSn are’d!t 1 v
with!nt’ia!t theY afnnot tarry their small children to the FHC
health seh^e9 ^?f1Y ear"ln?s- ^tr the govern!°s n!«™ural
araduali5hov+Z HtllakerL^rainec! as com™nity health workers are
ranges from 20 to 50 per cent inViFfe^-^ ’o^he^o^y?
the^illages?
f"”’
and Haryana do not have any children’s hospitals^? 'all^31’ Gujarat
P^°P°^ionnofmtherwomennandhchildrentwhoGrVi^6+hreSC^ °nlV 3 sma11
15-45 age group constitute neailv 99
to^n in the
+^iluren in thG °-6 age group compriseeLn+h1 0^the Population, and
fGr cent’ Afeeting
the health needs of this943 per ?e^t of th^^
major national task.
P°Pula^1on remains a
Water and Health
Water-borne and water-relatpd
infants and children. About 163 millinn^h^?^ loading killers of
rural India do not have access to
^^^n (0-14 years) in
thus exposed to infection which can^rov^faS/31^’ and th® are
1.6 km away, or i^sub-stand^rd^and^s res§ly *bieiehGr feore than
wells, streams,
adequate ip quantity, but
is open to the
-- -J
There are at least 185,000 villages where the
supply of water is both
inadeauatp anc ur)protectriH
risk of pollution.
’
NUTRITION
Malnutrition is a major cause of death among children in India. Every
month 1,00,000'children die from its effects. An even larger number
of children die of infectious diseases, their poor diet having made
them susceptible to infection and vulnerable thereby to death.
Children survive malnourishment depending on the degree of deficiency.
For every child who shows clinical signs of malnutrition, there are
probably at least 4 children suffering from milder grades of
malnutrition without clinically apparent in India.
Approximately 80 to 90 per cent of Indian children do not receive
adequate amounts of key vitamins and minerals; 75 per cent do not
receive adequate calories and about 50 per cent do not receive
enough proteins.
Acute diarrhoeal diseases are more frequent and serious among these
malnourishec chilcren than among those of normal nutritional status.
Pre-School Children
Some 60 per cent of children in the 0-6 years are group suffer from
nutritional anaemia and protein-calorie malnutrition in one
form or the other. Almost 40 per cent of all deaths in the country
P?OUP ancJ
majority of these fatal cases are
A deficiency and anaemia. Again,
three-fourths of the children in this age group have body weights
below 75 per cent of the standard weight of well-nourished children,
52 per cent suffer from moderate malnutrition, 23 per cent from
severe malnutrition and only 3 per cent can be considered as
having normal body weight.
Sn+Cn|n+^°m the ^^.socio-economic strata suffer the worst, 30 per
ar! Vlc,tims of mocerate or severe protein-calorie maln trition, as shown by their sub-standard body weights.
School-Going Children
It is estimated that 22 per cent of the school-going children show
one or more signs of nutritional deficiency. The most common Zre
and lack of vitamin A and Vitamin B-Comolex
anaemia,
A murh
froS f^oclo-oconomc
«6
uo 3 ?56PSIOn
sSb^aXe-’toPy wlghHf
E15"? °.f "Operate protein -calorie
•'*"
'“In^rltion, reflected in
V tt$mi n A Deficiency
early cliLdhoo^becaus^their die^lacks^if31^* by ,blindness in
Vitamin A. Severe Vitamin A
deficiency is estimated at a
10 14’00°
Ab°Ut 12
children of the toddler age gSio
[ syery year because of this
deficiency. Lack of the vT+^m? P-c
bli"^that afflicts about
-S'vitamin
t0 <'?tarV ^Hclency
such blindness is in
Child Nutrition and the Family
ccams are cue to prematurity.
°f
sk
the premature
per cent of infant
ti^rjv1:? jf^acTcMfJ Yse?eytfanih S?2e is
-■■■« o
the nutri, the
,
---- - Research
only
£M1^ a^-Jr^n^^^ayn^riHoy" horn to a family, °"
ly
among the fourth and
symptoms.
DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE
Of the 1550 million children in the world, one in every six is an
Indian. The 248 million children of India thus comprise nearly 16
per cent of all the world 's children.
India’s population is rising faster than the world rate, and the
addition of some 13 million infants every year gives India one of
the world's youngest populations. The 1971 Census showed that
42 per cent of the Indian population consists of children under
14 years of age. Children below 6 years comprise 21 per cent of
the population.
An index of the population composition is that while the entire
population of India in 1911 was 252 million, projections indicate
that children alone already numbered 248 million in 1976, and a
more recent estimate puts the child population in 1977 at 255 million.
The Twentieth Century will close with the number of children in
India almost certainly exceeding the total Indian population of 279
million recorded in the 1931 Census.
Urban-Rural Ratios
An estimated 81 per cent of India's children live in the rural areas.
According to population projections for 1976, the rural children
number 183.9 million, tribal children 14.9 million and urban children
49.7 million. These projections also indicate that nearly half of
India's children (48.7 percent) are below 6 years of age. Of the
121 million in this age group, 89.7 million live in the villages
and 7.3 million in tribal areas, while 24.2 million are in urban
areas.
Li ving Cone-it ions
According to 1976 projections, about 99.4 million children — nearly
two-fifths of the total Indian child population - live in conditions
adverse to survival. Of them, 43.5 million, or nearly half, are
less than 6 years olb.
The 1976 estimates place 35.8 million of these
youngest deprived
children in rural areas, 9.7 million in urban
areas and 2.9 million
in tribal areas. In the next age group (7-14 years),
50.9 million
children live in extreme poverty -- 37.7 million in
the villages,
10.2 million in towns and cities and 3 million in
tribal areas.
A more recent estimate (April 1977), indicates that as many as 126
mi ion children may be living below the poverty line.
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