Child Rights in India an Unfinished Agenda
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Child Rights in India An Unfinished Agenda www.planindia.org Child Rights in India An Unfinished Agenda Joining Forces For Children-India, is an alliance of six leading child development organizations, namely, ChildFund India; Plan India; Save the Children, India; SOS Children's Villages of India; Terre des hommes and World Vision India working towards the well-being and protection of rights of vulnerable children and young people in India. The collaboration is a joint call for action with moral obligation to join forces, leaving no stone unturned to increase accountability and impact for children. These agencies are focused at taking concerted efforts to accelerate implementation of SDGs for Children. Informed advocacy by conducting periodic Child Rights Situation Analyses on SDG progress for children at the country level, facilitating enhanced accountability by engaging with government as part of the SDG accountability framework and Increased focus on the ‘state of the Indian children’s rights’ are key objectives of alliance. First published 2019 © Joining Forces For Children-India This publication is copyright, but may be reproduced by any method with prior permission for teaching purposes, but not for resale. For copying in any other circumstances, prior written permission must be obtained from the publisher. CHILD RIGHTS IN INDIA 3 AN UNFINISHED AGENDA Acknowledgement We, Joining Forces For Children–India partners, Mr. Pankaj Mehta, Head, Child Protection, extend our heartfelt thanks to all the children ChildFund India; Dr. Kalyanashish Das, Director, and their parents who voluntarily participated Incharge, Programme Strategy & Policy and Ms. in this research and shared their views and Shama Parveen Khan, Senior Technical Advisor, personal experiences. These inputs form the Advocacy, Plan India; Dr. Namrata Jaitli, Deputy most important component of this research. In Director, Policy and Programme Impact, Save addition, we would like to thank the stakeholders the Children, India; Dr.Archina Dhar, Head, including Child Protection Committee members, Advocacy, SOS Children’s Villages of India; Ms. and government officials from the Departments Ritu Mishra, Programme Coordinator, Northern of Education, Social Development, Labour and Zone, Terre des hommes Germany-India Police; for the time and effort they have put in Programme; and Mr. Mikhael Kumar Pradhan, providing information useful for this research. Head, Advocacy, World Vision India. This research refers to a large number of This report has also benefitted from the reports and data sources that were available contributions of Ms. Neeru Chaudhary, in the public domain and those of the partner ChildFund, India; Mr. Pradeep Narayanan, Plan organisations of Joining Forces For Children India and Gus Prakash, Plan India. India. We would like to acknowledge the contribution of all these resources that Efforts of the authors of the report, Dr. Manish have helped in building a comprehensive Subharwal, CEO, IMPACT Partners; Dr. Sonali understanding on child rights issues in India. Mukherjee, Head, Research, Save the Children India and Mr. Farrukh Shah, Assistant Manager, This report was guided at every stage by Research, Save the Children India are greatly the vision and leadership of the Heads of six appreciated. Joining Forces For Children, India partners: Ms. Neelam Makhijani, CEO and Country Director, Our deep appreciation to Dr. Sanjay Gupta, ChildFund India; Ms. Anuja Bansal, Executive Mr. Ramya Ranjan Mishra and Ms. Deepti Director, Plan India; Ms. Bidisha Pillai, CEO, Pande from IMPACT Partners for conducting the Save the Children, India; S. Sandilya, President, field research and contributing to the research SOS Children’s Villages of India; Ms. Ingrid process. Special thanks to all our partner Mendonca, CEO - Terre des hommes Germany- organisations for their support in facilitating India Programme; and Mr. Cherian Thomas, interaction with children and communities. CEO & National Director, World Vision India. We are also very greatful to the efforts of Thanks is also due to Ms. Bhagyashri Dengle, all the colleagues from Advocacy, Media, former Executive Director, Plan India. They Communication and Campaigns teams from all provided constant support and guidance six organisations for ensuring the outreach and during the entire study and their insights have effective use of the findings of the report, so that significantly enriched this report. rights of all children are realised. We would also like to thank all the photographers who have so A significant contribution to this research has very effectively captured the lives of the children been made by all the current taskforce members, and brought it alive in the report. CHILD RIGHTS IN INDIA 5 AN UNFINISHED AGENDA Preface 1989 was a momentous year when world come down significantly and marriages of leaders came together and made a historic girls has come down by half in past ten years commitment to the world’s children by adopting contributing to global reduction of incidence of the United Nations Convention on the Rights child marriage. However, even today, violations of the Child (UNCRC), which is the most of child rights is an area of great concern. As widely ratified human rights treaty. 2019 is an the report highlights, 2 out of every 5 children important milestone in the journey of UNCRC are stunted, sex ratio is declining and vast as it completes 30 years. This is an opportune majority of children still face violence in their moment to take note of the progress of child everyday lives. rights globally and in India over these years. Joining Forces For Children-India is an alliance India has more than one-sixth of the global of six leading child development organizations population; therefore, achieving global UNCRC working towards the well-being and protection mandate and the success of the SDG agenda of rights of vulnerable children and young depends on the progress made by India. Quite people. This report endeavors to present the simply, the world will fail in achieving its targets findings of the progress made by various if India fails. India’s progress is all the more stakeholders including children, State, civil important due to the sheer size of its children’s society organisations, private sector, media and population -- as out of 1.3 billion people in academia and submits recommendations for India nearly 40% are under the age of 18. future course of action. We hope that this report will contribute to the discourse and concrete India has progressed well on a number of actions to ensure that every child has the child-related indicators, including introducing right to survival, development, protection and a number of progressive legislations to protect participation. the rights of children. Under-five mortality has Neelam Makhijani Anuja Bansal Bidisha Pillai S. Sandilya Ingrid Mendonca Cherian Thomas CHILD RIGHTS IN INDIA 7 AN UNFINISHED AGENDA CHILD RIGHTS IN INDIA 9 AN UNFINISHED AGENDA Table of Contents Acknowledgement ...............................................................................................................3 Preface ..............................................................................................................................5 Key Message ......................................................................................................................7 Abbreviations ...................................................................................................................11 Executive Summary ...........................................................................................................13 Chapter1: Introduction .............................................................................................................. 22 Chapter2: Methodology ............................................................................................................ 26 2.1 Goal of the Study ................................................................................................27 2.2 Objectives of the Study ........................................................................................27 2.3 Identifying Research Parameters ............................................................................27 2.4 Prioritising the Child Right Issues ............................................................................29 2.5 Research Framework ............................................................................................32 2.6 Sources of Information and Secondary Data ...........................................................33 2.7 Geography of the Study—States and Districts .........................................................33 2.8 Data Analysis and Report Writing .........................................................................35 2.9 Usefulness of the Research ....................................................................................35 Chapter 3: Situation of Child Rights in India ............................................................................... 36 3.1 Current Status of Child Rights in India ....................................................................37 3.2 Children with Specific Vulnerabilities ......................................................................58 3.3 Strategy to Monitor Implementation of SDGs ...........................................................63 Chapter 4: Voices from the Field ...............................................................................................