Children are assets of the future.

-Eleventh Five Year Plan, India

Quoting a report of UNICEF, There are two prominent trends in India: Impressive economic growth and wealth creation; and stagnation in key social indicators, particularly among disadvantaged population. Major part of this disadvantaged population is formed by underprivileged children of our nation. Some of the shameful features about the deteriorated condition of children in our country are as follows: Every second young child in India is malnourished with India making 1/3 rd of worlds malnourished children. Only 4 out of 10 girls who enroll complete 8 years of schooling. Due to high rate of female infanticide, the sex ratio of the country has declined to merely 927 girls to 1000 boys. There are 10 states with alarming low (<900) child sex ratio.

It is imperative to ensure that every child in the country is able to develop his full potential and share the benefits of economic growth and prosperity. There has to be given special emphasis that these children do not lose their childhood because of issues like Abuse, Child Labor , Alcoholism etc. They must be protected everywhere and at all times so that they do not fall out of the social security net.

Various issues are discussed in brief as follows: EDUCATION By the 86th Constitution amendment, it has been made a fundamental right of every child to get free and a compulsory education. Even though our constitution clearly states the importance of education to these budding futures of the country, there have been reported lots of fall outs across the country in delivering this basic need to them. Various reasons have been identified that has led government schemes to reach all. Some of them are as follows: (i) (ii) There is a lack of number of primary and secondary schools in the country. Even when there are schools present, at some places, they are located far from the main locality and the parents hesitate to send their child so far with no proper transportation facility. There is lack of required resources in the school. Eg. Every government has recognized the need to provide computer education to all but due to various economic constrains the availability has been very limited; Also, It has been reported from various parts of the countries the lack of proper toilets in schools etc. There lacks facilities to ensure all round development of the students in these government colleges. Hardly any resources to promote sports and games are present there. There can be very simple schemes that can be implemented like where inter city government sports competitions can be promoted with sponsorship from small and medium scale corporates. There has been no measure to prohibit and eliminate corporal punishments in schools and learning facilities. The number and quality of teachers enrolled are also a matter of concern at many places with no proper teacher review system. There still exists the narrow mentality about girl education in many rural areas of the country.

(iii)

(iv)

(v) (vi) (vii)

(viii)

At many times, boy/girl of the house needs to work as a helping hand to the family and a source of income and due to this reason they do not get proper education. There is no government scheme which gives education as well as child friendly employment to these needy kids. There is also lack in number of special schools for specially abled children. Even though the Gross Primary Enrollment rate is satisfactory, the dropout ratio very high. There has been no initiative taken to bring PPP at a large scale to get rid of the issues.

(ix) (x) (xi)

There are a lot more issues that is preventing schemes like Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and others to reach the every child of the country. The above ones are just to give you an idea. CHILD ABUSE AND LABOR Child labor is the practice of engaging children in economic activity, on part-time or full-time basis. It has been very well accepted that the bad effects easily overweighs the notion that it is good for the family if all the members irrespective of sex and age earn. It is shameful for the country that as many as 12.66 million children (as per 2011 census) have been involved in child labor. This number, instead of decreasing, has rose from 11.28 million in 1991.In states like Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh, the number is as high as 13-15% of the overall child population. According to a report, Children under age of 14 are forced to work as many as 18 hours a day and subject to huge malnutrition, impaired vision and deformities. They are often forced to live a life away from their families that deprive them of meaningful education and moral teachings. The following pie chart shows the areas where there are such child involvements:

These laborers, due to working in unorganized forms, the laws made by the government have failed to create a concrete impact on the society. There has been a lack of any agency that work at lower demographic levels of the country to ensure and check laboring at environments which are not suitable for them depriving them of basic educational and nourishment needs. HEALTHCARE Government of India has initiated a lot of child centric programs to provide better healthcare services to children and women. The National Polio mission is one of the examples. Yet there are lots of gaps that need to be bridged and works that need to be done. This is evident from the fact that the Sample Registration System, in 2010, estimated that, out of the total deaths reported, 14. 5% are infant deaths (< 1 years), 3.9% are deaths of 1-4 years children, 18.4% are deaths of children of 0-4 years and 2.7% deaths pertained to children of 5-14 years. The situation is worse in rural areas than in urban areas with share of infant mortality to total deaths in rural areas being 15.8% whereas in urban areas the same ratio being 9.7%. Also, according to a report, only the percentage share of infant deaths to total deaths in rural areas is 15.8%, whereas in urban areas, the same is 9.7%. Some of the major issues are as follows:

(i)

High Infant mortality rate: As mentioned above, the infant mortality rate is alarming in the country. There is a lack of trained nurses and doctors that can ensure proper birth of child in the country especially in rural areas. Also, the cases of female infanticide and brutal murder of girl babies are matters of great concern too! As a matter of fact, in rural areas the female mortality rate is pretty higher than the male mortality rate. This issue needs a special importance. Lack of availability of safe drinking water leading to spread of water borne diseases. Lack of insurance plans covering child healthcare Lack of the required number of doctors, trained self-help workers and hospitals with no scheme that can provide basic healthcare facilities to children albeit the crisis. Low rate of Immunization: According to a report, nearly 8% children aged 12-23 months did not receive a single vaccine and only 61% of children have received full vaccination. There is an urgent need for schemes that can penetrate to lowest demographic level and ensure protection of our future from dying.

(ii) (iii) (iv) (v)

NUTRITION It is a scientific proven fact that malnutrition has an adverse effect on productivity and affects the ability for a child to reach his full potential. India is one of the major countries where the issue of malnutrition is severe. According to a report of UNICEF, Every second young child in India is malnourished with India making 1/3rd of worlds malnourished children. The reasons behind it are lot varying from Poverty, Child Labor, Ignorance, Illiteracy etc. It starts right from the pregnancy of women with mothers not getting required amount of nourishment resulting into lesser height to weight ratio of baby. Infant and young child feeding practices in particular continue to be a serious challenge to reduce malnutrition among children.

The situation is more alarming in rural areas. Among male and female children (6-59 months) the percentage of children with any Anaemia was reported as 69% and 69.9% respectively, severe Anaemia was reported for 3.2 % male children and 2.7% female children; all due to lack of proper nourishment. It is also the major reason behind Child Mortality. These are only few of the many examples of the issues that have resulted due to huge malnourishment. The status of various aspects of nutrition among children points towards urgent need to take the call for aggressive awareness campaigns along with improved health care facilities with special privileges for the weaker sections of the society.

CRIMES AGAINST CHILDREN Crimes against children include: (i) (ii) (iii) (iv) (v) Child Trafficking Child Rape and Murder Child Abuse and Labor Infanticide Kidnapping and Abduction

It is alarming that, in 2011, the Crimes against children reported a 24% increase from the previous year with a total of 33,098 cases of crimes against Children reported in the country during 2011 as compared to 26,694 cases during 2010. Even after such increase there has been very few concrete steps being taken by government to ensure the safety of children. They should be educated at school level about what actions should be taken in case of any problem and there is an imperative need to setup fast track courts and children helpline centers. PROBLEM STATEMENT You are required to come up with models/schemes/programs/policies to tackle various issues to uplift the present situation of the future of this country. You should try that the ideas that you are suggesting should require as least finances as possible and are practical to implement. The solutions that you would suggest should take specific care of following points: (i) Suggest ways to improve the status of education among the children with special emphasis on girls education. Take care of the high drop rates. Keep in mind the overall development of the students and insurance of quality education. Suggest employment options for child because in many cases it is found that child is the only helping hand of the family. Ensure that what you are suggesting would not affect other aspects of his development like education.

(ii)

(iii) (iv)

Suggest healthcare improvement schemes along with ideas to tackle the issue of female infanticide. Suggest ways to tackle the issue of malnourishment. (v) the crime against children. Suggest ways to curb

Ensure to accord utmost priority to the most disadvantaged, poorest of the poor and least served child in all policy and programmatic interventions. [Note: The above discussion about various issues is just to give you an idea about the current situation and you are free to discuss any other issue and suggest solutions for them] Suggestions (i) (ii) (iii) (iv) Try using the present existing resources/institutions of government rather than introducing something that may cause economic constraints. Try modifying present schemes of the government to whatever extent you can. Ensure the practicality of implementation of your plans. If you are suggesting something that need investment, try to suggest how such finances can be made available from external or suggest plans that can self-sustain.

[Note: Above suggestions are just to help and you are totally free to ponder over or overlook them] RULES AND REGULATIONS 1. The competition is open only to the students studying either in the country or abroad. 2. All the teams have to register on the website which will generate their Team Id. 3. Maximum number of members in the team must not exceed 4. 4. Decision of the judges shall be treated as final and binding. 5. The teams must strictly follow all the deadlines failing to which will lead to their disqualification.

TIMELINE

Last Date

Details

Registration for the event

22nd February,2013

Through the website.

Abstract/Progress Report Submission

22nd February,2013

Shortlisting will be done on the basis of the report.

Shortlist Display

28th February,2013

Shortlisted teams Team ID shall be put up in the website.

Final report submission and presentation during the fest 22nd-24th March,2013 Participants would be needed to give presentation in front of experts.

REGISTRATION PROCEDURE The registration shall be done through the Cognizance website.

Steps (i) (ii) (iii) The Team Leader needs to login into the website through his username and password. The Equistrata The Child Empowerment Challenge event page has the tab Register to register the team for the event. This will generate your Team Id and a mail shall be sent to the mail id of team leader about the registration.

ABSTRACT SUBMISSION PROCEDURE You need to send the abstract to equistrata.childwelfare@cognizance.org.in with the subject Abstract Submission Team Id(eg. Abstract Submission COG13/XXXXXX) Mention the Names and Cognizance Id of all of your team members along with their phones nos. and email ids. The deadline to send the abstract is 22nd February 2013.

ABSTRACT FORMAT Abstract is to know the way you are approaching the problem and the progress that you are making. You need to send us the following details of your work: (i) The issues that you have identified and the research that you have done. (Mention the case studies that you have read/details of the surveys made/any other source) (ii) (iii) (iv) How are you approaching the issues? Progress made in finding the solutions. What other things are you planning to do in the coming days?

You must not take write more than 100 words for each of above details. Send us a word document with your Team-ID as your file name.

FINAL SUBMISSION (i) (ii) The final presentation shall happen during the fest i.e. 22 nd-24th March, 2012 in IIT Roorkee. Your presentation MUST not extend beyond 15 minutes.

FOR FURTHER QUERIES: Priyanshu Taparia Ph. No.: +91-9012505004 Email to: equistrata.childwelfare@cognizance.org.in