Child Well-Being Index: Kerala Best State For Children, Jharkhand And Madhya Pradesh Worst

Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh are at the bottom of Child-Well Being Index as a result of poor nutrition and low child survival rates, while Kerala (0.76), Tamil Nadu (0.67) and Himachal Pradesh (0.67) bagged the top three slots.

Child Well-Being Index

The Child Well-Being Index released on Tuesday, August 27 measures children’s well-being through three dimensions: healthy individual development, positive relationships and protective contexts.

Stressing upon the three key parameters, 24 indicators were selected to develop the child well-being index. The index ranks every state based on their performance in the three dimensions.

#Indiachildwellbeing @wvindia and IFMR LEAD have developed a composite index to enable States/UTs to assess how they fare on child well-being and identify priority areas for intervention. Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh and Puducherry fare well: https://t.co/ybOjOKTFkY

— IFMR LEAD (@IFMRLEAD) August 28, 2019

Kerala, TN, Himachal top India’s child well-being index says the India Child Well-Being report. #indiachildwellbeinghttps://t.co/s01tYTXpMQ

— World Vision India (@WVIndia) August 28, 2019

The index was developed by NGOs World Vision India and Institute of Financial Management & Research (IFMR LEAD).

Kerala’s Exceptional Performance

Kerala bags the top position among all the states, citing exceptional performance in health, nutrition and education facilities.

“Kerala bagged the top spot with the state providing a healthy start to its children. More children were completing school and were able to have access to quality education,” the report said.

Kerala also performed well in managing malnutrition and ensuring child survival and access to a healthy environment, with the focus on cleaning drinking water and sanitation facilities.

Lack Of Healthcare In Jharkhand

States like Jharkhand (0.50), Meghalaya (0.53) and Madhya Pradesh (0.44) stood at the bottom of the index.

Jharkhand lacks proper focus on child survival, nutrition and access to water and sanitation.

“More children were stunted and underweight, access to institutional delivery was low, and a higher number of children were dying before they turned five. Efforts need to be taken to ensure children complete schooling since more children were dropping out of school in Jharkhand,” the report read.

Poor performance in the areas of child survival, nutrition, crimes against children and juvenile crimes, brought the score down for Madhya Pradesh as well. More children live in impoverished families in Madhya Pradesh, the report added.

Performance Of Union Territories

Puducherry performed well with a score of 0.77, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli stood at the bottom end with a score of 0.52 among all the Union Territories.

The report has advised the states to look at their scores on the dimensions of child well-being and prepare priority areas for intervention and a plan of action.

The report also emphasised on policy-level changes, better budgetary allocations and discussions with all stakeholders. This step can help to improve the quality of life of all children in the country.

“The report highlights the multi-dimensional approach towards measuring child well-being- going beyond mere income poverty,” Cherian Thomas, National Director and CEO, World Vision India said.

Crucial Report For India

Most of the improvements seen in the report are due to the increased focus on awareness and social welfare programmes in the country.

Speaking about the report Amitabh Kant, CEO-Niti Ayog said: “The India child well-being index is a crucial report that can be mined both by the Government and civil organisations to achieve the goal of child well-being, and we will use this report effectively.”

“This report provides insights on health, nutrition, education, sanitation and child protection. Our government is fully committed to securing the rights and well-being of children and, for this, we are making investments in this regard,” Kant said.

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