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10.Discussions and Way Forward India Child Well-Being Report 2020

The India Child Well-Being Report 2020 is a representation of children’s well-being across the states and districts in India. The uniqueness of this report lies in the multidimensionality of dimensions and indicators used to analyse the well-being of children, which takes into consideration the child-centred and the external factors influencing child well-being. The child well-being index provides a layout of region-wise priority areas that require policy interventions, which would improve the performance of the country as a whole.

While measuring the children’s well-being, indicators like child sex ratio, infant mortality rate, neo-natal mortality rate, abortions and low birth weight determine the children’s ability to transit from birth to adulthood with a reasonably acceptable quality of life. Children’s Bodily Health is affected by factors like wasting, stunting, underweight and anaemia. In addition, lack of access to health care facilities for pregnant mothers resulting in low institutional deliveries, lack of timely vaccination for children and poor sanitation and hygiene facilities are also the contributors to child well-being. With respect to Bodily Integrity, sexual crimes against women and children, more children with disabilities and substance abuse among parents majorly contributed to child well-being.

The well-being of children is determined by their ability to imagine, to think and to reason, which is contributed to by factors such as pass percentage of 10th class students, primary school enrolment rate, secondary school dropout rate and the low percentage of households with internet under the senses, imagination and thought dimension. In the Emotions dimension, pupil-teacher ratio, parents smoking tobacco products and juvenile crimes majorly contributed to the well-being of children. Inadequate math and reading abilities among children aged between 5 and 16 years is a major contributor to child well-being under the dimension of Practical Reason.

Under the Affiliation dimension, women having land ownership indicators contribute majorly to the well-being of children. Playing and recreational opportunities for children are limited by factors such as a low percentage of schools with playgrounds and a low proportion of monthly expenditure spent on children, child labour and overcrowded households. In the Control over one’s environment dimension, high variation in monthly household income, high levels of migration and low percentage of households having monthly income of highest earning household member as less than 5000, high variation in maximum and minimum temperature and rainfall contributed majorly to the well-being of children.

With the current scenario of global health crisis, it is important to address the effect of covid-19 pandemic on the child well-being.

The report also provided brief insights into the impact of COVID-19 on children. At a national level, children are primarily impacted due to the extended closure of schools, disruption of child protection services resulting in aggravated domestic and/or sexual violence against children and malnutrition due to decline in household income. In the context of this report, child well-being is majorly affected with respect to the dimensions of bodily health, bodily integrity, and senses, imagination and thought.

The report also talks about the association of SDGs with child well-being. The nine dimensions used in the child well-being index capture the vulnerability of children. The indicators in each of these dimensions are aligned with the following SDGs – SDG 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 10, 15 and 16.

All these indicators and dimensions represent the necessity to move beyond traditional factors of Child Well-being and to look into other factors which directly and indirectly affect children.

The child well-being index presented in this report provides a snapshot of the status of children across the states and districts. The next significant steps would be on how to use this work in sustainable monitoring for child well-being at the national, state and district level. Three areas emerge as critical:

  1. Improving comparative data covering different regions, states and districts
  2. Strengthening national data sources
  3. Establishing strong linkages with policy analysis

World Vision India and its partners hope that this report will serve as a useful tool to inform policymakers and initiate demand-driven policy changes at the country as well as state level. The report is expected to enable states and the country to take a deeper look at the districts and identify the direct and indirect factors affecting the well-being of children and undertake significant policy interventions. The report is also expected to initiate discussions surrounding the well-being of children and enable undertaking of appropriate interventions by all stakeholders to create a more nurturing childhood for the children of this country.