7.4 Lakh children out of school in UP: Report

Lucknow, Nov 14 (UNI) About 7.4 lakh children are out of school in 65 districts in Uttar Pradesh, while it accounts for 4 lakh child labourers, Chief Secretary of the state Labour and Employment Department Dr Anil Kumar Gupta said today.

''Of the 4 lakh child labourers, 72,000 work in homes. They live in hazardous conditions and are vulnerable to abuse and are beyond the reach of development programmes. Besides, they are hardly paid any wage,'' he maintained.

He said that the duration of the anti-child labour campaign has been extended to November 30, while the concerned officials have been instructed to leave no stone unturned to curb the terror of child labour from root.

India accounts for one of the largest number of children out of school, according to UNICEF's latest report on global nutrition-- 'Progress for Children' -- India, Bangladesh and Pakistan account for half of the world's under weight children, the report says.

About 95 in every 1,000 born here do not see their 5th birthday.

Of the 1.2 crore girls born, 30 lakh do not see their 15th birthday.

Our kids are being denied food, right to education and health and even right to life. According to a report in 2005, number of HIV positive children in India were 59,007.

The mid-day meal has helped to fight hunger to some extent but it should be a rights based programme and not just an intensive based programme.

The recent UNESCO's 'Education for All' report said 1.35 crore children were out of school in the country. The children included orphans, child labourers, scheduled tribe children and minority groups.

India, with highest population of children-about 40 crore- has the dubious distinction of having the largest number of malnourished children and about one to three crore children are child labourers and homeless.

On children' day, one can just hope the facts to tell a different tale in the near future.

UNI ATI SHB DS1601