There are 472 million children in India under the age of 18 years. This constitutes 39% of the total population in the country (Census 2011)
Education:
- 1 in 4 children of school-going age is out of school in our country – 99 million children in total have dropped out of school (Census 2011)
- Out of every 100 children, only 32 children finish their school education age-appropriately (District Information System for Education (DISE) 2014-15)
- Only 2% of the schools offer complete school education from Class 1 to Class 12 (District Information System for Education (DISE) 2014-15)
Child Abuse and Exploitation:
- There are 10.13 million child labourers between 5-14 years in India (Census 2011)
- India has 33 million working children between the ages of 5-18 years. In parts of the country, more than half the child population is engaged in labour (Census 2011)
- Every day, around 150 children go missing in India – kidnapping and abduction is the largest crime against children in our country
Health and Nutrition :
- 19.8 million children below age 6 in India are undernourished (ICDS 2015)
- Only 9.6% of children between 6-23 months in the country receive an adequate diet (NFHS 4, 2015-16)
- 21% (1 in 5) of the children in the country suffer from wasting (NFHS 4, 2015-16)
Girl Child:
- 42% of married women in India were married as children (District Information System for Education (DISE) 3)
- 1 in every 3 child brides in the world is a girl in India (UNICEF)
- India has more than 45 lakh girls under 15 years of age who are married with children. Out of these, 70% of the girls have 2 children (Census 2011)