ISSN (Print) - 0012-9976 | ISSN (Online) - 2349-8846

ChildrenSubscribe to Children

A Case for Functional Social Protection Portability to Address Vulnerabilities of Migration-affected Children

Children from low-income migrant households are invisible in migration discourses. Despite existing provisions under various policies and schemes, access to social protection for migrant children has been fragile. Disruptions in education and inconsistent access to nutrition and primary healthcare sets them back further than non-migrant children from similarly disadvantaged backgrounds. COVID-19 has underscored that groups like migrants who face specific vulnerabilities are in acute need of tailored social protection programmes/measures. Functional portability measures that make opportune use of existing provisions in schemes are the first step towards this. Building on existing initiatives, policy frameworks must support adaptive social protection responses for this important segment of India’s population.

Bhojanmata’s Struggle for Dignity

Caste consciousness imposes moral limits on preferential hiring in the mid-day meal schemes.

 

Missing Children in India

Missing children in India is among the most serious issues in child protection. A large number of children go missing each year. Several factors for a child going missing include the linkage of missing children with child trafficking. Considering the seriousness of the issue, especially over the past decade or so, there has been a multipronged approach in India towards expediting the tracing of missing children. This article briefly examines the different categories of missing children, and incidence/prevalence of missing children. It affirms the need for contextualising the issue of missing children within the larger discourse of child vulnerability, marginalisation, and child protection.

 

The SRS Data on Early Childhood Mortality in India

Researchers have evaluated the quality of Sample Registration System data in the past and found errors in the estimated under-fi ve mortality rate. Discrepancies were observed in the age-specifi c death rates at ages 0–1 and infant mortality rate for India and state published by the Offi ce of the Registrar General of India in the SRS statistical report for 2018 and it was found that the published IMR and U5MR in the statistical report of many of the states are substantially different from the estimated IMR and U5MR in the life table constructed from the ASDRs published by the ORGI. Such errors are likely to incorrectly measure mortality gaps across population subgroups, for example, gender.

Infant Mortality Rate

Infant mortality rate has been improving in India for a considerable time now. From 2009 to 2018, India has improved the IMR from 50 to 32. This article aims to understand the underlying improvement in the IMR at the state level and establish whether there is convergence. For this exercise, the article uses health inequality measures like standard deviation, coeffi cient of variation, rate of improvement differences, β convergence and Gini coeffi cient. The fi ndings reveal that all states show improvement in IMR over 10 years, but the rate of improvement is varying amongst state and there is no convergence amongst the states. Small states and union territories improve the IMR at a higher rate compared to that of the national improvement rate.

Alternative Care for Children: A Case for Foster Care

Foster care is the temporary placement of a child with a foster family, which looks after the child for a limited period until the child goes into permanent adoption or back to their biological family. This article is based on in-depth interviews conducted with six foster mothers based in Mumbai. All of them have been working with an adoption and child welfare agency for more than six years, and have fostered more than eight children each. The article highlights their experiences of being a foster mother and in turn, aims to shed light on foster care as an alternative care system that needs to be encouraged.

Tales from a First-time Picture Book Author

A writer reflects on her experiences as the author of a children’s picture book, a genre that is often dismissed and misunderstood.

Child Undernutrition in India

The child undernutrition estimates from the Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey, 2016–18 reveal that many Indian states have made substantial decline, reversing their poor past record in wasting, ranging from 7 to 14 percentage points within just 30 months. Is it really possible to make such a large decline in such a short span of time? Or, does this point to an anomaly in data or estimation?

Silenced and Marginalised

An attempt has been made to demonstrate the linkages between the socio-economic-cultural marginalisation of children and their educational marginalisation. This is achieved through a thick description of the living and working conditions of the children, and the interplay between the factory, residence, school, market, family and other support systems, in order to gauge the social reality of these children.

Education of Children and Civil Strife in Chhattisgarh

This field study from Bijapur district of Bastar division, Chhattisgarh, ascertains the current status of participation of children from different social groups in elementary education and explores the specific factors caused by civil strife, based on interviews with and observations of children, parents, educational administrators and government functionaries.

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