Indian Children:

Future Citizens and source of Demographic Dividends are at increased risk under the NDA Administration

Indian will be the most populous county surpassing Chinas by 2022 and reaching 1.60 billion by 2050. India will also be one of the top five economics of world by then and a dominant player at the global economic and political decision making. In spite of these feats in sight, India is host to world’s largest concentration of the poor, malnourished, illiterate and unemployed.

About 16 million children are born every year in India. Most of these births occur in rural and urban peripheries and amongst the poor and uneducated households. A good proportion of these births also occur at home in the absence of trained medical aid. The infant and child mortality in India is still high compared to international standards and there is high variation within India, for example least in Kerala, most in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and so on. A recent survey ‘The National Family Health Survey (NFHS)-4’ estimates for the 15 large States; 37 per cent of children under the age of five are stunted; 22 per cent are wasted while 34 per cent under the age of 5 are under weight.  Households with low levels of income, the marginalized such as the SCs/STs and Muslims face a disproportionately larger load of infant and child mortality, malnutrition and ill health. 

Given such vulnerabilities that children and also women in reproductive ages face, the Government of India since last over three decades have perfected the ‘Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS)’, through which lifesaving, health augmenting as well as malnutrition reducing services are provide at the door steps of households and community concentrations. The institution which engages the communities at the grassroots is known as ‘anganwadi centre (AWC) – which is the first point of service delivery for health, nutrition and early learning for children at the village level. According to government norms, there should be one AWC for a population of every 800, with a minimum population requirement of 400.

ICDS is designed to provide basic education and health services to children below 6 years of age and to pregnant and lactating women. These objectives are achieved through a package of 6 services: a) supplementary nutrition, b) non-formal pre-school education (PSE), c) nutrition and health education, d) immunizations, e) health check-ups and, f) referral services.

On an average AWC cater (supplementary nutrition) to 68 children; but it is as high as 193 children in Bihar and 100 children in Uttar Pradesh during 2014. The financial allocations for MoWCD more than doubled from Rs10,444 crore in  2010-11 to Rs 18,588 crore in 2014-15; but got reduced by 44 percent in 2015-16 to Rs.10,382 crore. The ICDS program which is over 85 percent of MoWCD got an allocation of Rs. 8,754 crore which is a 47 percent decrease over previous year.  Over all for the second year in a row, the NDA government has undertaken massive cuts for child oriented program - from Rs. 15,483.77 crore last year to Rs. 14,000 crore in the latest budget.

As concerned citizens and well-wishers of India we must step-up our resolve to protect the interest of the children in India.