Status of children in India
India has the largest number of children in the world. More than one-third of the country's population is below 18 years. Millions of children in India grow up uncared for, condemned to miserable conditions. They live in abject poverty without any sort of medical treatment, education or food. The status of children in India is very alarming. India has made some significant commitments towards ensuring the basic rights of children. There has been progress in overall indicators: infant mortality rates are down, child survival is up, literacy rates have improved and school dropout rates have fallen. But the issue of child rights in India is still caught between legal and policy commitments to children on the one hand, and the fallout of the process of globalisation on the other. Over the last decade, countries across the world have been changing their existing economic models in favour of one driven by the free market, incorporating processes of liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation. The direct impact of free trade on children may not leap to the eye, but we do know that globalised India is witnessing worsening levels of basic health, nutrition and shelter. Children are suffering as a result of social sector cutbacks/policies and programmes and development initiatives that deprive communities and families of access to and control over land, forest and water resources they have traditionally depended on. The negative fallout is visible: children are being deprived of even the scarce social benefits once available; they are displaced by forced and economic migration, increasing the number of children subsisting on the streets; more and more children are being trafficked within and across borders; and rising numbers of children are engaged in part- or full-time labour.

Ground Realities
● India has the largest young population in the world. Only 35% of births are registered, impacting name and nationality ● India has the highest rate of neonatal deaths around 35%. One out of 16 children die before they attain the age of 1, and one out of 11 die before they are 5 years old. ● 35% of the developing world's low birth weight babies are born in India. ● 40% of child malnutrition in the development world is in India. ● There is a constant reduction in the number of girl are in the 0-6 age group : there are 927 girls for every 1000 boys - even less in some places.

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46% of children from scheduled tribes and 38 % from scheduled castes background are out of school. So of every 100 children, 19 continue to be out of school. There is a great number of high school dropouts, especially among girls.( Out of 100 children who enroll 70 dropout by secondary level.) There is a high-rate of child marriage, which adds to the lack of education among children ; 65% of girls on India are married by the age of 18 and become mothers after that. 37% of literate and 51% of illiterate girls are married below 15 years of age, while 10% of literate and 15% of illiterate boys married are below 18 years of age. India is the home to the highest number of child labourers in the world. According to the census conducted in the year 2011, the number of child labourers in India was 4.3 million. India has the world's largest number of sexually abused children, with a child belt 16 raped in every 155th minute, a child below 10 every 13th hour, and at least one in every 10 children sexually abused at any point in time. About 200 girls and women enter prostitution daily of which 20% are below 15 years of age

Government Acts
On November 20, 1989, the UN General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). On January 26, 1990, the opening day of the session, 61 countries signed it. The CRC covers all children under the age of 18 years, regardless of sex, colour, language, religion or race. India ratified the CRC in 1992 and brought Several constitutional provisions protect children in India. Despite these laws, policies and commitments, however, what is the actual situation for India’s children vis-à-vis health, education, early childhood care and protection? Survival The very survival of the Indian child is a matter of concern. Around 2.5 million children die in India every year, accounting for one in five deaths in the world, with girls being 50% more likely to die. Eighty-seven children of every 1,000 born still have the probability of dying between birth and 5 years of age. According to a report on the state of India’s newborns, the health challenges faced by a newborn child in India are bigger than those experienced by any other country. Although India’s Neonatal Mortality Rate (NMR) witnessed a significant decline in the year 1995-2000 (48 to 44 per 1000 live births) as of now, 2010-2014 it has been dropping. (32-29 per 1000 live births)

 Food insecurity : Malnutrition and Starvation One in every three malnourished children in the world lives in India. Child malnutrition is generally caused by a combination of inadequate or inappropriate food intake gastrointestinal parasites and other childhood diseases, and improper care during illness. Is it not ironical that in a nation with soaring GDP rates and Sensex indices, marking India’s entry into the global market, children continue to die of malnutrition and starvation? The major cause is lack of public health services in remote and interior regions of the country, poor access to subsidised healthcare facilities, declining State expenditure on public health, and lack of awareness about preventive child healthcare. According to the Planning Commission, 50% of below the poverty line (BPL) families are out of the purview of the targeted public distribution system. The very method of identifying the poor using the official poverty line defined at an absolutely low level of income corresponding to the expenditure required to purchase the bare minimum of calories, is contentious. Therefore, in reality, many more people are living in food insecurity. Ironically, the Supreme Court of India has had to intervene to ensure that children in this country get adequate and nutritious food -- the most basic of rights for all citizens to stay alive and healthy.

To be born a girl: Plummeting sex ratio The very existence of the girl-child is under threat. Defying the normal male-female balance, the higher survival capacity of girl babies, and greater life expectancy of women to men prevalent in human populations, the female-male balance in India has been adverse to females for at least 100 years. In the Population Census of 2011 it was revealed that the population ratio in India 2011 is 940 females per 1000 of males. The Sex Ratio 2011 shows an upward trend from the census 2001 data. Census 2001 revealed that there were 933 females to that of 1000 males. Since decades India has seen a decrease in the sex ratio 2011, but since the last two of the decades there has been in slight increase in the sex ratio. Since the last five decades the sex ratio has been moving around 930 of females to that of 1000 of males.

The Government of India, in its report to the UN Committee on the rights of the Child said: “Every year, 12 million girls are born -- 3 million of whom do not survive to see their 15th birthday. About one-third of these deaths occur in the first year of life and it is estimated that every sixth female death is directly due to gender discrimination.” Sex-selective abortion, more commonly known as foeticide, and what appears to be a re-emergence of infanticide, is taking a heavy toll, even as neglect of ‘survivors’ of this weeding out process persists. Unlike all the other social evils attributed to poverty, the killing of female foetuses through sex-selective abortion cannot be attributed to poverty and ignorance. Indeed, it is the economically affluent states of Punjab, Haryana, districts of Gujarat, and Delhi that have the dubious distinction of having more people who can pay for expensive tests to help choose male children over females. There are also states such as Pondicherry and Kerala where the number of women is more than the number of men. Kerala houses a number of 1084 females to that of 1000 males. While Pondicherry and Kerala are the only two states where the number of female is more than the number of men, there are also states in India like that of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra where the sex ratio 2011 is showing considerable signs of improvement. Some facts related to the Sex Ratio in India follows, the main cause of the decline of the sex ratio in India is due to the biased attitude which is meted out to the women. The main cause of this gender bias is inadequate education. Pondicherry and Kerala houses the maximum number of female while the regions of Daman and Diu and Haryana have the lowest density of female population Almost all government health policies seem to have an underlying family planning agenda. Health activists say that with its emphasis on population control, the Rural Health Mission is no different. Over the years it has become quite clear that if people are forced to limit the size of their families, they shall do so at the cost of the girl baby, even it means that they have to “import” brides from outside their states or communities. Commenting on the serious decline in the 0-6 sex ratio in India, leading demographer Ashish Bose says that the government’s policies are all wrong. The two-child policy has got mixed up with female foeticide. Government slogans like ‘Beti ya beta, dono ek hain’ (‘Girl or boy, both are equal’) make little sense. And financial sops for couples having a girl-child make no dent in the traditional preference for sons in India. If India closes the gender gap between girls and boys aged 1-5 years, 1.3 lakh lives will be saved and, overall, the child mortality rate will go down by 5%.

There is no guarantee that the girl-child who escapes foeticide, infanticide and is in the 0-6 age-group will escape the cycle of deliberate neglect that may even result in death because she is less fed, less encouraged to explore the world, more likely to be handed jobs to do and given less healthcare and medical attention. Out-patient data from hospitals in northern Indian cities shows lower admissions of girl-children, and girls who are in a more serious condition than boys when brought for treatment. An August 2004 spot-check at one hospital showed 25,538 boy-children and 12,645 girl-children in the OPD records, 3,822 boy-babies as against 3,160 girl-babies born in hospital, and 1,954 boy-children admitted to a paediatric ward as compared to 1,091 girls. Elementary education

While enrolment levels propelled by the flagship Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan show an increase, levels of retention in schools remain a matter of concern. There has been a marginal improvement in the percentage of students who stay in school until Class 5 -- from 61.2% to 62% -- but this is way below the global average of 83.3% . There is a sharp decline in the enrolment ratio at the upper primary level. Also, the dropout rate increases cumulatively as it proceeds towards higher levels. Although showing improvement, the enrolment of girls is still below that of boys. The dropout rate for girls too is higher. Children belonging to scheduled castes and scheduled tribes continue to face discrimination in schools and have lower enrolment and higher dropout rates. Despite the promise of education for all, 46% of children from scheduled tribes and 38% from scheduled castes continue to be out of school, as against 34% in the case of others.This is not surprising considering the discrimination that these children face at school. The same can be said of the discrimination faced by disabled children. The Constitution of India fails to even recognise education as a ‘right’ for those aged 15-18 years. Many children drop out after the elementary level. Indeed, the system is designed to push children out of education -- there is a lack of adequate school infrastructure, the quality of education is poor, the educational system is gender-unfriendly, disabled-unfriendly, caste-discriminatory and violent because of a high degree of corporal punishment. A Model Education Bill has been developed and circulated to the states for adoption into state law. There will thus be no central legislation on education, only state legislation since education is a state subject. If states decide to adopt the Model Education Bill as it is, they will be eligible for 75% assistance from the Centre for education programmes. But if they modify the Model Bill in their formulation of the state education law, they will only be eligible for 50% of central

government assistance. The Model Education Bill is not available for public scrutiny, posing serious questions about the government’s accountability and transparency.

Child labour and right to education: A contradiction

India has the highest number of child labourers in the world. According to the Census 2001 figures there are 1.26 crore working children in the age group of 5-14 as compared to the total child population of 25.2 crore. There are approximately 12 lakhs children working in the hazardous occupations/processes which are covered under the Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act i.e. 18 occupations and 65 processes. As per survey conducted by National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) in 2004-05, the number of working children is estimated at 90.75 lakh. As per Census 2011, the number of working children in the age group of 5-14 years has further reduced to 43.53 lakh. It shows that the efforts of the Government have borne the desired fruits The existing law on child labour that allows children to work in occupations that are not part of the schedule of occupations that are considered harmful to children contradicts the right of every child to free and compulsory education. And yet no attempt is made to resolve this contradiction. How can children be at work and at school at the same time? Surely this means that any attempt to give them access to education will be second-rate, parallel non-formal education? Government has accordingly been taking proactive steps to tackle this problem through strict enforcement of legislative provisions along with simultaneous rehabilitative measures. State Governments, which are the appropriate implementing authorities, have been conducting regular inspections and raids to detect cases of violations. Since poverty is the root cause of this problem, and enforcement alone cannot help solve it, Government has been laying a lot of emphasis on the rehabilitation of these children and on improving the economic conditions of their families. The disabled child: Always on the periphery

A total of 595,335 persons, accounting for 13.0 per cent of the population, had a disability in April 2011. Of these 289,728 (48.7%) were male while 305,607 (51.3%) were female.

5-9 year age group when males accounted for 64 per cent of disabilities. Overall there were 73.4 per cent more males than females presenting with a disability in the 5-14 age group. There is a high rate of disability among young children, particularly for males. Barely 50% of disabled children reportedly reach adulthood, and no more than 20% survive to cross the fourth decade of life.Although there is very little information regarding the nutritional status of children with disabilities, disabled children living in poverty are among the most deprived in the world. Those who suffer mental disorders are much worse off, as there is still very little recognition of the problem. Poor enforcement of the Persons With Disabilities Act and the Mental Health Act means that disabled people in India continue to be discriminated against in terms of access to basic services and opportunities. There are few special services for disabled children. Paediatric wards at government hospitals are incapable of dealing with children with disabilities, particularly in terms of infrastructure and resources. Child Abuse Child Abuse refers to hv the ill treatment, neglect, mental and sexual harassment and serious injury caused to children by the members of family and society. The abuse can be physical, sexual, and emotional caused by an adult or perpetrator or another child. Undernourishment, torture, assault, beatings, bruises and burns are physical abuses which can have serious repercussions. Children who are handicapped and ill are at a higher risk as far as abuse is concerned. Poverty in the family, broken and problem families, lack of control in the family, improper or defective socialization etc, can create irritable nature in the children. The lack of love and affection, the deprival of the emotional need in the Child may make him depressed and rebellious. Child abuse take on various forms like using a child for sexual gratification, either covert or overt, seducing minor, exposure of a child to pornographic materials, paedophilia, etc. Cases of rape against Children show no sign of abating. 181 cases are registered in the first 5 months of 2012 in the state of Kerala itself. The Child Welfare Committee, reports that more cases are being registered connected with sexual harassment. In a shocking revelation, a government commissioned survey has found that more than 53% of children in India are subjected to sexual abuse, but most don't report the assaults to anyone. The survey, covered different forms of child abuse — physical, sexual and

emotional — as well as female child neglect, found that two out of every three children have been physically abused. Parents and relatives, persons known to the child or in a position of trust and responsibility were mostly found to be the perpetrators of child sexual abuse in the country. According to the women and child development ministry-sponsored report, which assumes greater significance in the backdrop of the Nithari killings that brought into focus the issue of children's safety, those in the age group of 5-12 years reported higher levels of abuse. "Child abuse is shrouded in secrecy and there is a conspiracy of silence around the entire subject. The ministry is working on a new law for protection of children's rights by clearly specifying offences against children and stiffening punishments."- Maneka Ghandi

The survey, carried out across 13 states and with a sample size of 12,447, revealed that 53.22% of children reported having faced one or more forms of sexual abuse, with Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Assam and Delhi reporting the highest percentage of such incidents. In 50% of child abuse cases, the abusers were known to the child or were in a position of trust and responsibility and most children did not report the matter to anyone. The survey, sponsored by WCD ministry and carried out by the NGO Prayas in association with Unicef and Save the Children, found that over 50% children were subjected to one or the other form of physical abuse and more boys than girls were abused physically. The first-ever survey on child abuse in the country disclosed that nearly 65% of schoolchildren reported facing corporal punishment — beatings by teachers — mostly in government schools. Of children physically abused in families, in 88.6% of the cases, it was the parents who were the perpetrators. More than 50% had been sexually abused in ways that ranged from severe — such as rape or fondling — to milder forms of molestation that included forcible kissing. The study also interviewed 2,324 young adults between the ages of 18 and 24, almost half of whom reported being physically or sexually abused as children. When it comes to emotional abuse, every second child was subjected to emotional assault and in 83% of the cases, parents were the abusers. Adding to the grim situation, the recent crime statistics published by the Kerala Police till March 2014, reveal that there is a noticeable increase in rape cases, kidnapping and abduction, and other crimes against children. Around 184 rape

cases have been reported in the first three months of 2014 as against 637 cases last year. Besides this, eight murder cases, 24 cases of kidnapping and abduction and three cases of procuration of minor girls have been reported till this March. Government action Over the last few years, the government has taken a number of measures related to children. The most important has been the setting up of a full-fledged Ministry of Women and Child Development as against the Department of Women and Development that used to function as part of the Human Resource Development Ministry. Among the policy and law initiatives that were undertaken was the formulation of the National Charter for Children 2003, the National Plan of Action for Children 2005, and enforcement of the National Commissions for Protection of Child Rights Act 2006. However, the National Policy for Children 1974 has not been repealed, nor does the charter override it. Thus, the status of the charter is not very clear. The government announced the much-discussed and long-delayed National Plan of Action 2005 only in August 2005. Led by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, the government has completed a study on child abuse in India and is in the process of drafting a law on Offences Against Children. It has also initiated the process of amending the present law on child marriage. Parliament has recently passed the Prohibition of Child Marriage Bill 2006, which enhances punishment for those involved in these practices, and people abetting or attending child marriages. It also declares all child marriages null and void. This is also the main criticism against the legislation that will come into force as a law applicable retrospectively – ie, all child marriages that have taken place in the past will be declared null and void and the status of children born out of such marriages will come under question. The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act 2000 was amended in 2006 and the Central Model Rules in this regard are being formulated. The Model Right to Education Bill is not available for public scrutiny/comment, as is also the case with the Offences against Children Bill. The Offences against Children Bill has drawn criticism based on drafts available through various sources. The first is that it is too vast in terms of the kind of offences it seeks to address under one umbrella legislation. The second is that, unlike the Immoral Traffic Prevention Act (ITPA) that extends to the whole of India, the proposed legislation keeps the State of Jammu and Kashmir out of its scope. The third, and most important, criticism is that since many of the offences dealt with under the proposed Bill are of a very serious nature, the criminality of those offences should

be established through the main criminal law of the land, ie the Indian Penal Code and not through a social legislation. India already has a strong juvenile justice law to deal with social and reformatory aspects of a crime; that law could be strengthened further to ensure that human rights standards of child protection are met whilst rehabilitating a child victim. Moreover, both the Home Ministry and the Law Ministry are working on amendments in the Criminal Procedure Code, and many activists feel that this is the right time to seek appropriate amendments to ensure child-friendly legal procedures within the CrPC and the Indian Evidence Act. The government has set up a National Coordination Group on the Rights of the Child for implementation of child rights in the country, and has instituted a Chair on the theme of Protection of Child Rights as part of the 10 Rajiv Gandhi Chairs in Contemporary Studies in central and state universities. These mechanisms, however, are not functional. Recognising the importance of child budget analysis, the Ministry of Women and Child Development has institutionalised child budgeting and has included it in the new National Plan of Action for Children, 2005. All of the above are important measures. However, what is required is a complete re-examination of the legal framework for children as whole, identification of gaps and reconciliation of existing anomalies within the law and the implementation of policies, programmes and schemes meant for children. Only a recognition of children as individuals with rights can pave the way for future action. In the absence of this, all efforts will be sporadic, addressing only some symptoms and not the root cause of the problems that affect the children of this country.