Forgotten Voices the World of Urban Children in India
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Forgotten voices The world of urban children in India www.pwc.in Preface “...in serving the best interests of children, we serve the best interests of all humanity.” - Carol Bellamy, Former Executive Director, UNICEF In recent years, India has captured the attention of the global community for its promising and steady economic growth coupled with a high proportion of young population. Urbanisation holds key if the country has to emerge as the next superpower. With 37% of future adults in the country, of whom, 120 million will be living in urban spaces, mainly in slums, on and off the streets as well as in shelters, this number will only grow and is estimated to reach around 180 million by 2030. For the urban deprived children, access to basic services such as clean water, toilets, decent education is a daily struggle. Lack of legal identity forces them to stay out of schools and deprives them of basic facilities such as health centres, proper nutrition and right to play among others. Insufficient protection measures make them vulnerable to all kinds of harassment and abuses, often inflicted by adults. Girls especially fall prey to archaic beliefs, forcing them to abandon their studies, stay restricted within the confines of their homes and subject themselves to physical exploitation, while spending their entire life fulfilling gender-specific duties. In all, for these children, one form of deprivation leads to another. It is time that we hear their side of the story. While looking at children as a demographic factor, we need to specifically strive to address the needs of millions of such children. We must protect them from physical as well as emotional threats and provide them with nourishment and good education so that they grow up as healthy citizens who contribute to the betterment of society. It is with this thought that PwC and Save the Children came together to develop a cohesive and an in-depth report on issues important to children living in urban areas. In order to understand these wide-ranging themes and suggest possible solutions, we brought together a team of expert authors, guided by an advisory board consisting of representatives of academic as well as research institutions, NGOs and UN agencies. For our analysis, we have drawn from the best sources and proactively engaged with children in order to understand their perspective and have subsequently tried to capture that succinctly for you, our readers. The report suggests practical solutions that government schemes such as the ‘smart city’ can implement for an inclusive, child-friendly and equitable urban development. It is heartening to witness that the new government has launched several urban development initiatives, thus, recognising the importance of cities in the country’s overall growth and development. Our endeavour, through this report, is to initiate a vigorous discussion on how these ‘forgotten voices’ can be heard. This can take place only when we have your support to sustain this debate and look at creative ways to implement some of the suggestions that this report highlights. “I dream for a world which is free of child labour, a world in which every child goes to school. A world in which every child gets his rights.”- Kailash Satyarthi, Nobel Peace Prize winner Deepak Kapoor Harpal Singh Chairman Chairman PwC India Save the Children India 4 PwC - Save the Children Letter from the ministry Forgotten voices: The world of urban children in India 5 Contents Preface Letter from the ministry Did you know? Executive summary Urbanisation and urban life in India: An overview • Context • Concepts and definitions • Urbanisation trends in India: An analysis • Child population in urban India • Urban poverty • Crimes in cities • Outline • Conclusion Urban governance • Introduction • Child-friendly cities • Urban governance system in India: An overview • Urban finances: An overview • Urban programmes aimed at meeting these challenges • Gaps in urban governance: How is the urban child affected? • Good practices and possible solutions to the problems of urban governance • Recommendations Health, nutrition and WASH: The interconnections Health of children in poor urban settings • Brief overview • Public health conditions in Indian cities • Child health in urban India: Backdrop • Rural versus urban children • Healthcare burden • Current situation: Key challenges • Efforts undertaken to deal with challenges • Best practices of NGOs, government, etc • Conclusion Malnutrition among children in urban India • Introduction • Nutrition situation in urban India: An overview • Implications of undernutrition on overall development • Determinants of undernutrition in urban India • Immediate causes of undernutrition • Underlying factors contributing to undernutrition in children • Addressing malnutrition in urban India: The way forward WASH in urban areas • Introduction • Water and sanitation in urban areas • Policies and programmes for urban water and sanitation • Conclusion Education of urban children • Policy and legal framework • Access, equity and quality: Trend analysis • Challenges of schooling in urban context • Possibilities and good practices • Conclusion • Recommendations Child protection • Sites of vulnerability • Measuring vulnerability • The protective cover: Mechanisms of the state • Data gaps and impediments to planning • Conclusion • Recommendations Urban resilience and rights of children in India • Urban risk scenario • Urban resilience • Visible environmental phenomena that affect children • Protecting children’s rights in times of disasters • International processes and protocols • Recommendations and the way ahead Conclusion Endnotes Methodology Glossary Acronyms Acknowledgements Urban environment According to the World Health Organisation’s list Population of 30 most polluted cities in the world, The current population density 15 are in India with of Mumbai is already 10 times than that of New York. Delhi topping the list. Nearly one in every six urban Indian residents lives in a slum. Around 41.2 million children in the age group of 0 to 6 live in urban areas. Every eighth urban child (0 to 6 years) in India lives in slums. More than 8.1 million children live in slums. There was a decline in birth of nearly 3 million girls as opposed to 2 million boys during 2001-11. Around 47% of the children of the urban poor are malnourished. 8 PwC - Save the Children Did you know Poverty Education and protection The share of the urban Sixty-eight per cent of street children are poor in the total number illiterate and 40% work in the unorganised of poor in India is sector. growing and is now There are 13,21,424 child labourers in close to 27%. urban India (Census 2001 data). Thirty-five per cent of India’s street children are dealing with substance abuse. The states of Uttar Pradesh and Delhi together accounted for 47.6% of the cases of kidnapping and abduction of children reported in the country. In urban areas, out of 1,000 girls, only 14 reach Class 12. Twenty-nine per cent of girls in urban areas are victims to child marriages and this trend is increasing. In urban areas of India, only half of the girls between 15 and 17 years of age attend school. Forgotten voices: The world of urban children in India 9 Executive summary Background That is more than the combined population of the five north eastern states: Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram. The urban century Unicef’s State of the World’s Children 2012 report states, By 2040-50, urban India will constitute a 50% share in the “The children living in around 49,000 slums in India are total population of the country. Also, its share in India’s GDP invisible”. Half of these slums are located across the five will grow to 75% by 2030.1 states of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Tamil Though the share of the country’s urban population to its total Nadu and Gujarat.7 population is still at 31% (Census 2011), urban India has grown While tremendous progress has been made on the ‘hardware’ five times since 1961 in terms of population. India is going front in terms of developing city infrastructure, not enough through a crucial phase of transition, from being a predominantly attention has been paid to the ‘software’ of these cities, rural country to one where majority of the people aspire to live especially for its young citizens. Children in urban India, in cities. For the first time in history, Census 2011 highlighted especially those from disadvantaged sections—slum as well as that the net decadal addition to the population during 2001-111 street children, orphans, and specially-abled are susceptible was more in urban than in the rural areas, thus marking the to scenarios such as ill-health, poor access to water and beginning of a demographic shift. This trend will be an ongoing sanitation, insufficient education, urban disasters and child process with 600 million people expected to reside in urban protection and safety concerns. areas by 2030 as compared to 377 million in 2011.2 The opportunity that urbanisation presents lies in designing While the number of people residing in urban India is on the the right governance structures, investing adequately to rise, equally alarming is the rise in the number of the urban facilitate this growth and ensuring inclusive growth. A child- poor. Standing at no less than 76 million, the burgeoning friendly city is one that has a system of local governance, size of the urban poor cannot be ignored. As per Census 2011, and is committed to fulfilling children’s rights, which include there are 13.7 million slum households in India that live influencing decisions about the city, expressing their opinion, amidst inadequate basic amenities, poor health outcomes, participating in social life, receiving basic services, walking insecurity as well as unstable incomes. Today, slums are and playing safely, living in an unpolluted environment and located across urban areas in the country, with 63% of being an equal citizen.