Vasan releases UNICEF baseline survey on children and women

New Delhi, Sep 7 (UNI) India has more than 400 million children below the age of 18 years which is larger than the population of all other countries except China and constitutes about one-fifth of the child population of the world, Minister of State for Statistics and Programme Implementation G K Vasan said here today.

Noting that every year about 26 million children are born of whom about 1.5 million children die before reaching their first birthday and 2.2 million before their fifth birthday, Mr Vasan said a large number of these deaths were due to diseases which were preventable.

The Minister made these comments while releasing the results of the UNICEF baseline survey on Well-being of Children and Women conducted by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO), under his Ministry.

As a nation committed to achieving the time-bound goals and targets set out in the Millennium Development Goals, a large number of which are related to the well-being of children and women, it was no longer relevant to discuss the status of children and women at the country level or even state level. "One has to now go down to the district level and the levels below to understand the situation there to make any meaningful interventions for improvement in the situation of children and women," Mr Vasan said.

"But what distinguishes India is not merely the sheer numbers, but rather the complex pattern of difference that emerges through gender, poverty and states," he said, adding "while on one extreme Madhya Pradesh has an Infant Mortality Rate of 79 per 1,000, Kerala has reached 12. The chance of a girl child reaching her fifth birthday is lower than a boy child." Pointing to the complex and paradoxical setting that makes planning and implementing developing work in India so challenging, Mr Vasan noted the marked disparities between regions and social groups, between rich and poor and between the sexes.

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