Statistics

• Children constitute over one-third of India’s population of 1.21 billion people, which means India is home to 400 million children.
• Every sixth child in the world lives in India (Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation- MoSPI, 2012)
• India has 10.12 million children aged between 5 to 14 years (National Census 2011)
• An estimated 11.6 lakh children die every year within one year of their birth due to lack of immunization. (Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India)
• Vaccine-preventable diseases (VPDs) are still responsible for over 5 lakh deaths annually in India.
• A slight gender differential noted, with 62% of the male children having received full immunization, as against 60% of females (Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MOSPI), 2012
• Out of the 400 million children in India, every second child is malnourished (National Family Health Survey III – NFHS, 2005-06)
• Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) in India continues to be high at 212 per 100,000 live births (Sample Registration System – SRS, 2011)
• Girls in India have 61% higher mortality than boys at age 1-4 years (National Family Health Survey III – NFHS)
• In India, 22% of babies are born with low birth weight (National Family Health Survey III – NFHS)
• In India, about 55% of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes children under 3 years of age are underweight compared to about 37% of children from the general population of 400 million children (National Family Health Survey III – NFHS)
• The Under-5 Mortality Rate (U5MR) in India is 88.1% for Schedule Caste and 95.7% for Schedule Tribe children, against the national average of 59.2% (National Family Health Survey III – NFHS)
• In India 47 out of every 1000 live births do not complete their first year of life ((Sample Registration System – SRS, 2011)
• 79% children of the 400 million in India (6-35 months) are anaemic (National Family Health Survey III – NFHS)
• 56% adolescent girls (15-19 years) in India are anaemic, as against 30% adolescent boys (National Family Health Survey III – NFHS)
• Over 25% increase in child murders is noted since 2000 in India (National Crime Records Bureau – NCRB, 2011)
• The Net Enrollment Ratio (NER) at the Upper Primary Elementary Level in government schools in India is only 58.3% (Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation – MoSPI, 2012)
• Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) at the Secondary Level in government schools in India is below 50% (District Information System for Education – DISE, 2011-12)
• About 35% children in India with disabilities remain out of Elementary school (District Information System for Education – DISE, 2011-12)
• School dropout rate amongst adolescent girls in India is as high as 63.5% (Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation – MoSPI, 2012)
• Nearly 45% girls In India get married before the age of eighteen years (National Family Health Survey III – NFHS)

 The above statistics are grim. What is worse is that very little is known of what it means to be part of such horrific numbers. The task before us is huge and we at SUIT believe that for real change to happen, every member of our society should take responsibility to change the lives of these children permanently.

While the reality in India may be far from ideal, we at SUIT believe that every child has a right to dream.