Poor show by India on child well-being, says report
July 19th, 2012 - 7:42 pm ICT by IANSNew Delhi, July 19 (IANS) With 1.25 million infant deaths annually and 42 percent of the kids being underweight, India has slipped in the area of child well-being in the last 15 years, according to a report released Thursday.
The Child Development Index (CDI) released by NGO Save the Children showed that Japan is the best place in the world to be a child while Somalia is the worst.
The report noted that while many countries in the world made remarkable progress in child health, education and nutrition - the three premises that form the basis of this report - India slipped by 12 ranks between 1995 and 2010.
The report made an aggregate analysis of the CDI in three time periods - 1995-1999, 2000-2004 and 2005-2010.
India’s poor performance comes in the context of as many as 127 countries improving their scores between 1995 and 2010.
“Our global child development report shows that out of the 141 countries that have been ranked, India with its CDI rank at 112 (out of 141 countries) in 2005-10 is among the only 14 whose rank has dropped,” said Thomas Chandy, CEO, Save the Children, India.
According to figures, 1.25 million infants die in India annually and 42 percent of children are underweight.
“It is a wake-up call for us. Save the Children has reiterated that economic progress must result in inclusive growth for all, especially the poor and the marginalised,” he said.
The CDI, launched in 2008 as a tool to monitor the progress in child well-being, ranks the best and worst places to be a child and improvements in the field at the global level.
It measures the number of children in school, the under-five mortality rates and he number of underweight children.
The 2012 edition of CDI also showed that the lives of children around the world, in the indicators we measured, improved by more than 30 percent.
“This means that the chances of a child going to school were one-third higher, and the chances of an infant dying before their fifth birthday were one-third lower at the end of the 2000s than a decade before. During this period child well-being improved in 90 percent of the countries surveyed,” the report said.
- 'India fourth worst in maternal care' - May 08, 2012
- 42 percent children under five underweight: Report - Jan 10, 2012
- Asia-Pacific unlikely to meet hunger, child mortality goals - Feb 17, 2012
- India's march for Millennium Development Goals uneven: Report - Sep 12, 2010
- Salient features of report on malnutrition and hunger - Jan 10, 2012
- Commonwealth is home to 64 percent malnourished kids - Oct 13, 2010
- India ranks low 134 in human development index - Nov 02, 2011
- 24 percent Indian kids go hungry: Survey (Lead) - Feb 15, 2012
- A quiet revolution saving rural children's lives (Aug 1-7 is World Breastfeeding Week) - Jul 31, 2011
- '1.72 million children die before age one in India' - Jan 23, 2011
- Ban to meet business leaders for UN health agenda - Apr 28, 2012
- India, others making efforts to save children, women: UN - Sep 20, 2011
- 24 percent Indian kids go hungry daily: Survey - Feb 15, 2012
- India home to world's 42pc underweight children - Oct 14, 2010
- Infant mortality in Bengal has come down: Mamata - Apr 20, 2012
Tags: aggregate analysis, chandy, child development, child health education, children around the world, countries in the world, development index, economic progress, global child, global level, infant deaths, marginalised, mortality rates, New Delhi, ngo, poor performance, remarkable progress, time periods, underweight children, wake up call