[Reader-list] RTF (Right to Food) Articles - 6

[Rakesh Iyer]

 Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 15, 2007   [image: Google] <http://www.google.com/>

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   *Independent India at 60*

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  Independent India at 60 <http://www.hinduonnet.com/af/india60/index.htm>



CHILDREN

* Where are the children? *

 NIRMALA LAKSHMAN

  That one in three malnourished children lives in India is a reflection of
the failure of the Indian state


  Recent newspaper investigations have revealed that several hundreds of
children suffer from severe malnutrition in Thane district near Mumbai,
India’s financial capital. For instance, two-year-old Manoj, whose weight
should be 10 kg, weighs only 3.8 kg; his weight increased by only 2 kg since
birth. Last year 1,100 children in Thane died of malnutrition-related
causes. This year, in Mumbai alone, 501 children were found to be suffering
from acute malnutrition. In Ma dhya Pradesh, 55.1 per cent of children
suffer from malnutrition, and in Bihar the figure is 54.4 per cent. The
third National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3) of 2005-06 shows that
nationwide 46 per cent of children under three are undernourished; down by
only 1 per cent since the previous survey in 1998-99.

The number of children suffering from malnutrition in India even 60 years
after Independence remains staggeringly high. Despite being one of the
fastest growing economies in the world, severe malnutrition leading to high
infant and child mortality puts India low (126th in 2006), in the United
Nation’s Human Development Index (HDR), a key indicator of the well-being of
populations. One in three malnourished children of the world lives in India.
This is a critical reflection of the gross failure of society and the Indian
state to implement and sustain measures to safeguard the lives and health of
the children of this country.

Statistics indicate that 2.5 million children die in India every year,
accounting for one in five deaths of children in the world. Girls are also
50 per cent more likely to die than boys in India. The HDR of 2006 points
out that despite a steady growth of GDP in the country, the decline in child
mortality has remained stagnant after going from 2.9 per cent a year in the
1980s to 2.2 per cent a year in 1990.

The alarming lack of progress in reducing child mortality and improving
other poor indicators of child well-being underline the fact that increases
in wealth and income do not lead to an improvement in human development. The
consequences of early childhood malnutrition are well known; they include
physical and mental impairment often leading to an early death. Survival is
therefore the first issue of concern for the Indian child, followed by the
challenges of malnutrition and undernutrition, poor access to health care
and education, as well as a host of other threats ranging from sex
selectivity and the discrimination faced by female children, to child
labour, child abuse and trafficking.

Although in an overall sense in the six decades since Independence, child
survival rates have improved and other factors such as school enrolment
especially among girl children has increased, the rate of progress has not
been commensurate with the overall growth of the economy. This is in part
due to the many paradoxes that dog the Indian social and legal system. For
instance, child labour has only been banned in certain occupations; there is
no total prohibition of child labour. This contravenes a child’s right to
free and compulsory education guaranteed by the Constitution. Measures to
tackle other problems like child abuse, trafficking, gender discrimination
and the special needs of disabled children are either ineffective or
inadequately implemented. The failure to deliver on certain fundamental
rights of children such as the right to food, the right to health and the
right to education contributes to their deleterious condition. Focussed
interventions and increased budgetary allocations for child welfare
programmes coupled with the commitment to protect the entitlements of
children constitute some of the most exigent needs of the country today.

While the Indian Constitution in Article 39(f) directs that States provide
children “opportunities and facilities to develop in a healthy manner and in
conditions of freedom and dignity,” little has been done to ensure this.
India is also a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of
the Child (CRC). The CRC sets out the basic rights of children, including
the right to life, protection from abuse and exploitation; it also
delineates the states’ responsibilities towards children. However, as
economist Amartya Sen has said, human rights exist by virtue of being born a
human being. Similarly, children’s rights need to be asserted as being basic
to their existence — including the right to life, the right to food and the
right to health, education and development. The plethora of laws that have
emerged over the decades since Independence is of no consequence unless
these rights can be asserted and safeguarded through such laws. Mina
Swaminathan, an expert in early child development, has for instance stressed
that child rights are often violated even before birth, such as by the
sex-selective abortion of female foetuses, which continues to be prevalent
despite the law against it. Even though there has been a marginal rise in
the female-male sex ratio in the 2001 Census, there has been a disturbing
decline in the female to male sex ratio in the under-6 age group. The 1991
Census shows the female to male sex ratio in the 0-6 age group as 945 girls
per 1,000 boys, whereas in the 2001 Census in the same age group the ratio
was 927 girls to 1,000 boys. The tragedy is that even if a girl child
escapes death in the womb and survives an infancy dogged by poor health,
malnourishment and inadequate access to food, she will probably be forced to
work within the household and outside, and will in all likelihood be denied
a proper education.

Adopting a rights approach ensures that the entitlements of all children are
protected. This has been clearly demonstrated by the Supreme Court’s orders
on the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), the only comprehensive
programme that focusses on the needs of children under six in the country,
especially for nutrition and health. The Supreme Court has called for the
“universalisation” of the ICDS, which implies that every child under six, as
well as pregnant and nursing mothers, are *entitled to* the package of
services that include supplementary nutrition, growth monitoring and
promotion, nutrition and health education, immunisation, health services as
well as referral services and pre-school education. In interim orders passed
in 2001 and in 2004, the Supreme Court directed the Government of India to
increase the number of anganwadi centres (for ICDS services) from 6 lakh to
14 lakh and to ensure that all Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe hamlets and
slums in urban areas be provided with these centres. The most far-reaching
directive from the Supreme Court, however, came in December 2006, when a
time-frame was given to State governments (December 2008) to create the
proposed anganwadis. More radically, the Court mandated that all rural
habitations, tribal hamlets and slums where there are at least 40 children
under six are entitled to an “anganwadi on demand.” This is an explicit
recognition of the ICDS as a right of all children.

The Focus on Children Under Six (FOCUS) Report published in December 2006,
which surveyed in detail the condition of the ICDS in six States in 2004,
and offered critical insights, revealed that the programme has done well in
States where it receives more attention such as Tamil Nadu, where anganwadis
are open every day and food and services are always available. Economist
Jean Dreze, who was associated with the Survey, said that functional
anganwadis with adequate staff, cooked lunches and health services seemed to
be the norm in many villages in Tamil Nadu. More significantly, he observed
that even uneducated Dalit women in Tamil Nadu were aware of their
entitlements and knew how to enforce them. Anuradha Rajivan, an expert in
child nutrition, said that in Tamil Nadu anganwadis cannot remain closed
without immediate queries being raised. She pointed out that the coming
together of political commitment and public pressure which perceives the
ICDS as a right is yielding good dividends in Tamil Nadu.

There is no reason that the lead taken by States like Kerala and Tamil Nadu,
where child indicators are better than in the other States, cannot be
followed. If children’s issues are viewed as a matter of their right, it
will not only positively affect their situation but will also strengthen
Indian democracy. If 60 years after Independence, the majority of children
in the country are still undernourished and continue to face severe
deprivation and exploitation, there is an urgent need for concerted effort
to tackle what has been described as a “humanitarian emergency”. Legislative
protection, judicial intervention and social activism can push children’s
issues centre stage, but political will backed by adequate resource
allocation and a real commitment to recognising the human rights of children
are needed if this nation is to progress in the real sense of the word.
*Dr. Nirmala Lakshman is Joint Editor, The Hindu.*

   * *

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