What does one of the most populated countries has to offer for the potential workforce that is still in the making? A country where only 50% of the children population gets to visit any school at all when primary education is compulsory and free, the answer is not much. The statistics related to children show that the future of India at least looks grim. The morality rate of children of under the age 5 is 95 out of every 1000. The condition is worse for girl child in the nation.
According to the constitution of India and the entire world, a citizen is considered a child when He or she is under the age of 18 years.
In India, 40% of the population falls under this category and hence we are one of the largest potential workforce’s in the world.
The reason for despair is the fact that we are not doing anything to ensure that this workforce translates into increased productivity. The children can grow up to be engineers, scientists, astronauts, lawyers, singers, dancers, artists on international level if given the right education but today,
Not even half of the population of children goes to school.
Only a little above one-third of the population is enrolled in the 1st grade reaches grade 8th.
A mere 53% of the habitation has educational institutions
For secondary education institutions, these statistics drop down to 20%
The need of proper faculty is also real as much as 60% of the schools catering to 1st to 5th standard students have as few as two teachers to handle the entire procedure.
Expensive cost of education is regarded as the reason for dropping out of school by almost 35% of the population.
Half the boys and 58% of the girls drop out of school between 3rd to 5th standard.
Due to lack of infrastructure, 1 in 40 primary schools are run in either open spaces or under tents.
Another evil which has its claws sunk deep in the future of these children is child labor. Many children are either forced by their parents or by others to do work.
Children work as cheap labor taking away the jobs of their adult counterparts and consequently put in a situation in which they should not be.
As many as 17 million children are employed but only per the official estimate, the unofficial one has much more to contribute.
Normally, these children are either sold to contractors by their parents or told to work with the family or with some boss in order to earn money for the family.
500,000 children are forced into the trade of sex working every year.
The look on the health of the children also shows the darker side of the nation.
2 million children die before even reaching the age of 1 year each year in India.
Vaccination, a mandate facility provided by the government, is only able to reach 38% of the population below the age of 2 years.
Respiratory problems and diarrhea are two leading causes of morality rate with 30% and 20% claiming the lives of children respectively.
Nutrition at its worst
Half the population of children is facing malnutrition in India.
23% of the children born are underweight at the time of birth.
As a group, Pahla Kadam works on taking initiatives to make the condition better for these children in the best way possible. To begin with, every step is being taken by us to ensure that more and more students have educational institutes nearby, are given proper food at least once a day and heinous acts of child labor and child prostitution are eradicated from the world.
You can also contribute to this dream.