Statics of children in india

There are 444 million children in India under the age of 18 years. This constitutes 37% of the total population in the country (Census 2011)

Education

  • 1 in 4 children of school-going age is out of school in our country – 99 million children in total have dropped out of school (Census 2011)
  • Out of every 100 children, only 32 children finish their school education age-appropriately (District Information System for Education (DISE) 2014-15)
  • Only 2% of the schools offer complete school education from Class 1 to Class 12 (District Information System for Education (DISE) 2014-15)

 

Child labour and exploitation

  • There are 10.13 million child labourers between 5-14 years in India (Census 2011)
  • India has 33 million working children between the ages of 5-18 years. In parts of the country, more than half the child population is engaged in labour (Census 2011)
  • Every 8 minutes, a child goes missing in India – kidnapping and abduction is the largest crime against children in our country (District Crime Record Bureau (DCRB) 2014)
  • Over the last 10 years, crimes against children has increased 5 times over (District Crime Record Bureau (DCRB) Data Series)
  • Fear of failure in examinations in the second highest cause of suicides in children (Accidents and Suicide Deaths in India (ASDI) 2014)

Health

  • The health indicators of children in India are among the worst in the world – only around half (54%) of the infants in India are fully immunised. More than half the births in the country continue to remain home-births (National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 3)
  • 4 out of 5 children under 3 years of age in the country are anemic (National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 3)
  • 3 out of 5 children are malnourished (National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 3)
  • Around 8.5 lakh children are estimated to die before their first birthday each year (Census 2011 and Sample Registration System (SRS) 2013)
  • Latest NFHS data shows that less than one-third infants receive adequate diet in all states in the country* (National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 4)
  • Data has been released for 18 states and Union Territories

 

Girl Child

  • 42% of married women in India were married as children (District Information System for Education (DISE) 3)
  • 1 in every 3 child brides in the world is a girl in India (UNICEF)
  • India has more than 4.5 lakh girls under 15 years of age who are married with children. Out of these, 70% of the girls have 2 children (Census 2011)