India Improved Its Child Wellbeing Index, Says Global Childhood Report

The world has changed a lot in the last 20 years and so has our Indian society. There have been attempts to question the illogical beliefs, women are being encouraged to pursue their dreams and processes are in place so that every child gets primary education. While we question the wrong still prevalent in our society, there are reasons to laud our attempts to create a better society. One such reason is the Global Childhood Report 2019. The important takeaways from the research are:

• More than a quarter of billion children are better off today than they would have been two decades ago. Together China and India account for more than half of this global decline.
• The study evaluated 176 countries on the basis of the standard of living of children in that country. The aspects considered in this respect are - children’s access to health care, education, nutrition and protection from harmful practices like child labour and child marriage.
• Save the Children Childhood Report 2019 attributes the remarkable progress we have made in protecting childhood with strong leadership, social investments, and the success of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
• Life changing events like marriage, early pregnancy, exclusion from education, sickness, malnutrition and violent deaths are considered to be childhood enders. According to the study, in the year 2000, around 970 million children were robbed of their childhood due to these events.
• The study also puts forth that the circumstances have improved in 173 of 276 countries in the last two decades. Save the Children Global Childhood Index was launched ahead of the International Children’s Day on June 1.
• Helle Thorning-Schmidt, CEO of Save the Children International said, “A hundred years ago, following one of the most destructive wars in human history, Save the Children’s founder Eglantyne Jebb drafted the Declaration on the Rights of the Child. Today children are healthier, wealthier and better educated than ever before.

The number of married girls between in the age group 15-19 is down by 51 percent in India.

Number of teenage brides, especially the one between 15-19 years, down by 51%

The number of married girls between in the age group 15-19 is down by 51 percent in India. Moreover, countries performance has also improved across various dimensions related to childhood, some of them being, child health, education, labour, marriage and violent deaths. The report also described that more than half of the decreased numbers in childhood ender events were reported in India and China collectively, which means the two countries have performed really well in improving the standard of living of their children.

Life changing events like marriage, early pregnancy, exclusion from education, sickness, malnutrition and violent deaths are considered to be childhood enders.

India has cut teen births by 63% since 2000 and by 75% since 1990

Since there is a decrease in the number of teenage brides, this also led to the number of early pregnancies. Early pregnancies posed a threat to the girl’s life and many a time, due to lack of medical facilities, they died. All these factors have improved today with stringent laws and legal actions. India has also got its score improved in the childhood index. Its score increased by 137 points from 632 to 769. There has been a reduction in teenage births which is approximately equal to 2 million, meaning lives of 2 million such girls were saved.

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