Children’s' Day: Are we really celebrating?

Children’s' Day: Are we really celebrating?
Concerns and issues faced by the children’s of India.

Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. Nothing can explain it more when you look into the eyes of a child. Its purity, honesty, inquisitiveness and warmth simply make even the toughest soul melt in admiration.

As we celebrate this year Children’s day with pomp and gusto let me try to bring in the readers focus to the concerns and issue facing the Indian children. Every parent tries their best to provide utmost care, protection, education and upbringing for their children. But there are a lot of unfortunate and underprivileged children who has to struggle even for a single meal, a piece of cloth and a roof above their head.

As some one rightly said that the winds and the stars are my roof, sounds poetic but in reality, the children’s face the same and that’s reality not poetic. Why are there so much of inequalities around, and if anyone believes in God, I guess God made every one equal. But where all these discrimation does arises from, is it the society where we live in, where materialism is the Holy Grail. Of course someone can’t just remove these ill effects with a stroke of a magic wand but yes, someone can definitely make an effort to help.

Sometimes I feel, do we really believe in the rule of the jungle, where it’s the survival of the fittest, but tell me, are the children really have to follow the rule of the jungle. I doubt!!

In-spite of a lot many of the organizations helping and aiding underprivileged children, the problems exists and it’s my sincere effort to bring in the issues to all readers, who might be in a better position, to understand what happening around you and also to realize that they are reading this because there are the fortunate ones.

India is a vast nation, and will definitely overtake China, if not in economy, but surely in population count. Children’s in India constitute about 42 % of the population and are at risk on the streets, at their workplace and even inside their own homes. In India children vulnerabilities and exposure to violations of their protection rights remains spread and multiple in nature.

The issues ranges form child labor, child trafficking, various forms of abuses, health problems, malnourishment, AIDS, illiteracy, child marriages, etcs. So lies the problems that a lot of children face. Realities bites, but let’s strive to make the situation from worse to good.

Issues facing children in India

· Polio remains a serious threat, notwithstanding a massive campaign to eradicate it. Children continue to die of vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles.
· Malnutrition affects nearly half of all children under age five.
· Anemia affects teenage girls, stunts children’s growth and is a leading cause of maternal death and babies with low birth weight.
· Diarrhea, often caused by unsafe drinking water or poor sanitation, is the second leading cause of death among children. Access to clean drinking water has improved in recent years, but 122 million households lack toilets.
· School enrollment is increasing, but retention and completion rates remain low in part because of the poor quality of the education system, which emphasizes memorization over problem-solving.

With an estimated 12.6 million children engaged in hazardous occupations (2001 Census), for instance, India has the largest number of child laborers under the age of 14 in the world. Although poverty is often cited as the cause underlying child labor, other factors such as discrimination, social exclusion, as well as the lack of quality education or existing parents’ attitudes and perceptions about child labor and the role and value of education need also to be considered.
Trafficking of children also continues to be a serious problem in India. The nature and scope of trafficking range from industrial and domestic labor, to forced early marriages and commercial sexual exploitation.
Despite health improvements over the last thirty years, lives continue to be lost to early childhood diseases, inadequate newborn care and childbirth-related causes. More than two million children die every year from preventable infections. Infant mortality in India is as high as 63 deaths per 1,000 live births. Most infant deaths occur in the first month of life; up to 47 per cent in the first week itself.
Malnutrition is more common in India than in Sub-Saharan Africa. One in every three malnourished children in the world lives in India.
Malnutrition limits development and the capacity to learn. It also costs lives: about 50 per cent of all childhood deaths are attributed to malnutrition. In India, around 46 per cent of all children below the age of three are too small for their age, 47 per cent are underweight and at least 16 per cent are wasted. Many of these children are severely malnourished. The prevalence of malnutrition varies across states, with Madhya Pradesh recording the highest rate (55 per cent) and Kerala among the lowest (27 per cent).
Malnutrition in children is not affected by food intake alone; it is also influenced by access to health services, quality of care for the child and pregnant mother as well as good hygiene practices. Girls are more at risk of malnutrition than boys because of their lower social status.
1 in 3 of the world's malnourished children lives in India.
Malnutrition in early childhood has serious, long-term consequences because it impedes motor, sensory, cognitive, social and emotional development. Malnourished children are less likely to perform well in school and more likely to grow into malnourished adults, at greater risk of disease and early death.
An estimated 400,000 children under five years of age die each year due to diarrhea.
Several million more suffer from multiple episodes of diarrhea and still others fall ill on account of Hepatitis A, enteric fever, intestinal worms and eye and skin infections caused by poor hygiene and unsafe drinking water.
Diarrhea remains the major cause of death amongst children, after respiratory- tract infections. Unhygienic practices and unsafe drinking water are some of its main causes. More than 122 million households in the country are without toilets. The lack of toilets also affects girls’ school attendance. Of India’s vast rural primary and upper primary schools, only one in six have toilets, deterring children - especially girls - from going to school.
Despite a major improvement in literacy rates during the 1990s, the number of children who are not in school remains high. Gender disparities in education persist: far more girls than boys fail to complete primary school.
190 million females in India are non-literate But 20 per cent of children aged 6 to14 are still not in school and millions of women remain non-literate .Several problems persist: issues of ‘social’ distance – arising out of caste, class and gender differences – deny children equal opportunities. Child labor in some parts of the country and resistance to sending girls to school remain real concerns. Girls belonging to marginalised social and economic groups are more likely to drop out of school at an early age.
My intention of putting these facts forward is not to make you crib, as we generally do, but to make you aware of the situation and to bestow the responsibility to you, and yes every individual can make a difference. What it requires is an extra involvement. Your participation!
Now participation can have different meanings. Participation is not merely attending a function. That is decoration and not participation. Participation is also not when children are being merely consulted when adults make all the decision. It’s not being spoon fed for ideas, logic and opinions. It’s all about making choices and understanding the value of you to the society.
Children and young people have the right to participate in family decisions, in school and class decisions, in faith communities, in their cultural and sporting organisations, and also in local and national. Children have the right to freedom of expression, to form and join associations and to seek and receive appropriate information. These rights should empower children to bring about changes in their own lives, to build a better future.
Why should children (you) participate? There are benefits to children and young people themselves, to adults and to society when children participate. You can help shape policy, practices and erase the perception about, sayings like "all children are helpless against violence" or "cannot reason until they turn seven".
Children who participate are more likely to go on to become capable and involved citizens as they grow up. They learn democratic procedures and responsibilities by participating. SO lets us participate in making ourselves responsible and mature to understand what’s happening around us and believe
We are the world,
We are the children,
We are the ones who make a brighter day.