State of the World’s Children 2011 (Unicef Report)
1. The future of adolescent girls in India seems dismal with a vicious cycle of underweight adolescence, child marriage and maternal mortality. More than half of them ( 56 per cent) are anaemic and 43 per cent are married off before the age of 18.
2. The appalling nutritional figures for adolescents puts India in the company of least developed nations such as Congo, Burkina Faso and Guinea.
3.India, in fact, beats even sub- Saharan Africa with the highest underweight adolescent girl population of 47 per cent in age group of 15 to 19 years. The country has the world’s largest adolescent girl population ( 20 per cent).
4. According to the report, 43 per cent of girls were married off before the age of 18 and more than half of them gave birth before they turned adults.
5. India also displays very glaring gender disparities. While 30 per cent of boys between the ages of 15 and 19 years are anaemic, 56 per cent girls in the same age group suffer from the condition.
6. The adolescent birth rate also stands at 45 – the number of births per thousand women between the ages of 15 and 19 years.
7. About 57 per cent of the poorest children in the country are underweight compared to 20 per cent of the richest.
8. The risk of HIV infection is considerably higher in young females than young males. While 35 per cent of boys had knowledge of HIV and AIDS, only 28 per cent girls are adequately informed.
India’s appalling figures
56 per cent girls are anaemic, on par with Congo, Burkina Faso & Guinea
47 per cent girls in the age group of 15 – 19 year are underweight – the highest underweight adolescent girl population
43 per cent of girls were married off before the age of 18. Only Bangladesh, Niger and Chad have higher figures
22 per cent gave birth before they turned 18
6,000 adolescent mothers die every year.
School attendance dropped from 86 per cent at primary level to 64 per cent for secondary schooling
For girls, school attendance dropped sharply as they move from primary to secondary school – from 83 per cent to 59 per cent
Source: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/130959/latest-headlines/un-report-says-indian-teen-girls-undernourished.html
Report: http://www.unicef.org/publications/files/SOWC_2011_Main_Report_EN_02242011.pdf
http://www.unicef.org/sowc2011/pdfs/Table-1-Basic-Indicators_02092011.pdf
Girls Marriage (NCW Report)
1. Around 70 per cent of girls are below 18 at the time of their marriage in Hindi-speaking states like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Bihar.
2. 73 per cent girls under 18 marry in Madhya Pradesh followed by Rajasthan 68 per cent, Bihar 67 per cent and Uttar Pradesh 64 per cent.
3. In Andhra Pradesh too 71 per cent girls tied the knot while still below 18.
Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/70-girls-in-Hindi-belt-marry-before-18-NCW-/articleshow/6842299.cms
Violence in Schools (Plan International 2010 report)
1. Corporal punishment is widespread in Indian schools, despite being illegal. More than 65% children, its report claimed, said they were beaten. A majority of such victims are in state schools.
2. The study also discovered that caste and gender discrimination was the major cause of violence against children. It said many students abandoned their studies because of such humiliation, which included hitting with hands or sticks, making them stand in various positions for long periods and tying them to chairs. More boys (54%) than girls (45%) were subjected to corporal punishment.
3. Interestingly, many among the students interviewed believed corporal punishment was sometimes necessary. Students in Assam, Mizoram and UP reported highest rates of corporal punishment, while Rajasthan and Goa the lowest.
4. In India, 69% of children said they had been physically abused in different settings, including schools, but most said they had not reported it to anyone
5. In total, 12,500 school kids in 13 states between five and 18, as well as otherwise, took part in the research.
6. India is dubiously ranked third among 13 countries in terms of estimated economic cost of corporal punishment. Plan calculated that anything between $1.4 billion and $7.4 billion was lost every year in India by way of social benefits because of physical ill-treatment in schools.
Report: http://plan-international.org/files/global/publications/campaigns/Plan%20LWF%20ODI%20Report%20221010.pdf
Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/More-than-50-Indian-kids-face-sexual-abuse/articleshow/6812170.cms
Child Labour( ILO ‘Accelerating action against child labour’ 2010 report)
1. India has 445 million children, Bangladesh 64 million, and Pakistan 70 million, as compared to, for example, China’s 348 million.
2. In sheer numbers, India and Pakistan have by far the largest out-of-school child population in the world.
3. India still devotes about the same proportion of national income to education (about 3.5%) that it did in the mid-1980s.
4 Four states account for 40% of the country’s child workers.
Report: http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/—dgreports/—dcomm/documents/publication/wcms_126752.pdf
Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Most-child-labourers-found-in-Asia-Pacific-ILO/articleshow/5911034.cms
Child Health ( UNICEF report 2009)
1. India has a whopping 61 million stunted children, the largest in any country,distantly followed by China that has 12 million children.
2. 3 out of 10 stunted children in the World are from India
3. Stunted growth is a consequence of long-term poor nutrition in early childhood. Stunting is associated with developmental problems and is often impossible to correct. A child who is stunted is likely to experience a lifetime of poor health and underachievement, a growing concern in India that is demographically a young nation.
4. Astoundingly more than 90% of the developing world’s stunted children live in Africa and Asia.
Source: http://www.unicef.org/sowc09/report/report.php
Child Health (Save the Children-2009 Report)
1) A child dies every 15 seconds in India due to neonatal diseases while 20 lakh children die before reaching their fifth birthday.
2) Over four lakh newborns are dying every year within 24 hours of life in the country.
3) Over 20% of the world’s child deaths occur in India — the largest number anywhere in the world.
4) One in three of all malnourished children in the world live in India.
5) Around 46% of children under three are underweight in India.
6) Around 28% of child deaths are linked just to poor sanitation and unsafe drinking water
7) India’s child mortality statistics are particularly poor, with 72 deaths per 1,000 live births, higher than neighbouring countries such as Bangladesh.
Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/india/In-India-a-child-dies-every-15-seconds/articleshow/5088409.cms
Hunger in India (United Nations World Food Programme (WFP)-2009 Report):
1. India ranks 94th in the Global Hunger Index of 119 countries.
2. India is failing its rural poor with 230 million people being undernourished — the highest for any country in the world.
3. Malnutrition accounts for nearly 50% of child deaths in India as every third adult (aged 15-49 years) is reported to be thin (BMI less than 18.5).
4. More than 27% of the world’s undernourished population lives in India while 43% of children (under 5 years) in the country are underweight.
5. More than 70% of children (under-5) suffer from anaemia and 80% of them don’t get vitamin supplements.
6. According to the report, the proportion of anaemic children has actually increased by 6% in the past six years with 11 out of 19 states having more than 80% of its children suffering from anaemia.
7. The proportion of stunted children (under-5) at 48% is again among the highest in the world. Every second child in the country is stunted, according to the health ministry’s figures.
8. Around 30% of babies in India are born underweight.
9. Almost 80% of rural households do not have access to toilets within their premises. The figure exceeds 90% in states like Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa and MP.
Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/India-tops-world-hunger-chart/articleshow/4197047.cms