Have you ever thought about this?

Even though India’s children account for more than one-third of its population, their interests have never been given priority. And their rights have been violated every single day. CRY has compiled some statistics on the situation of children in India. This is based on its experience of working on a range of children's issues across all regions of India.

The statistics are grim. What is worse is that very little is known of what it means to be part of such horrific numbers The task before society is huge and we at CRY believe that every member of our society should take responsibility to change the lives of these children permanently.

The situation of underprivileged children in India

• 40% of India's population is below the age of 18 years which at 400 million is the world'slargest child population.About 60 million Indian children under the age of 6 live below the poverty line.
• Children from 100 million families live without water at home.
• Children from 150 million families live in households without electricity.
• Less than half of India's children between the age 6 and 14 go to school.
• A little over one-third of all children who enroll in grade one reach grade eight.
• One in every ten children is disabled in India.
• 95 in every 1000 children born in India, do not see their fifth birthday
• 70 in every 1000 children born in India, do not see their first birthday
• Only 38% of India's children below the age of 2 years are immunized
• 74% of India's children below the age of 3 months are anemic
• More than one in three women in India and over 60% of children in India are anemic
• Acute respiratory infections are leading causes of child mortality (30%) followed by diarrhea(20%) in India.
• One in every 100 children in India between age group of 0-14 years suffers from acuterespiratory infection
• Almost one in every five children in India below the age of 14 suffers from diarrhea.
• 30-40% of the India's population, which is largely economically deprived, spends over 70% oftheir total expenditure on food.
• Amongst married women in India today, 75% were under age at the time of their marriages
• While one in every five adolescent boys is malnourished, one in every two girls in India isundernourished
• 23% of India's children are underweight at birth
• 58% of India's children below the age of 2 years are not fully vaccinated. And 24% of thesechildren do not receive any form of vaccination
• More that 50% of India's children are malnourished.

Child Labour

Children are often treated as the "property" of the very adults who are supposed to care for them; they are ordered around, threatened, coerced, silenced, with complete disregard of them as "persons" with rights and freedoms.

• 17 million children in India work as per official estimates.
• They work for 12 - 15 hours a day and earn less than Rs.3 per day.
• They work with explosives, metals, and poisonous gases from the age of 3 - 4 years.
• A study found that children were sent to work by compulsion and not by choice, mostly byparents, but with recruiter playing a crucial role in influencing decision
• When working outside the family, children put in an average of 21 hours of labour per week
• 19% of children employed work as domestic help
• 90% working children are in rural India
• 85% of working children are in the unorganized sectors
• About 80% of child labour is engaged in agricultural work.
• 25% of the victims of commercial sexual exploitation in India are below 18 years of age.
• Millions of children work to help their families because the adults do not have appropriate employment and income thus forfeiting schooling and opportunities to play and rest.
• Children also work because there is demand for cheap labour. High incidence of child labour is a result of high incidence of adult unemployment.
• Large numbers of children work simply because there is no alternative - since, they do not have access to good quality schools.
• Poor and bonded families often "sell" their children to contractors who promise lucrative jobs in the cities and the children end up being employed in brothels, hotels and domestic work.

Many run away and find a life on the streets.All children have the right to be protected from work that interferes with their normal growth and development. Abandoned children, children without families and disabled children need special care and protection.

Child commercial sex workers

• There are approximately 2 million child commercial sex workers between the age of 5 and 15 years and about 3.3 million between 15 and 18 years
• They form 40% of the total population of commercial sex workers in India
• 80% of these are found in the 5 metros
• 71% of them are illiterate
• 500,000 children are forced into this trade every year

Mentally/ physically challenged children

• 3% of India's children are mentally/physically challenged
• 20 out of every 1000 rural children are mentally/physically challenged, compared to 16 out of every 1000 urban children
• Mentally/physially challenged girls are at a particular risk to violence and abuse .

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