India ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1992, reaffirming its commitment to children's rights. Since then, there have been both positive developments and ongoing challenges. Positively, laws and policies have been established to better protect children's health, education, and safety. However, issues remain regarding implementation and enforcement of children's rights. Overall progress has been mixed, and fully realizing children's rights as outlined in the Convention will require continued effort across government, NGOs, and society.

1. 1

2. India Ratified the Convention on the Rights of
the Child in 1992, reiterating its Constitutional
commitments to the children of the country.
Government, UNICEF and NGOs spent the initial
years after ratification in spreading
awareness about it.
2

3. What have we gained since…
• A full-fledged Ministry for Women and Children in 2006
• A spurt in legal reform
- Right to Education became a Fundamental Right
- For the first time, early childhood care and development found space in the Constitution as a directive
principle of state policy
- Amendment to the PNDT Act to become PC&PNDT Act, laying down provisions to cover pre-conception
sex selection and providing for better monitoring and action against the erring persons.
- Amendment to the Infant Milk Substitutes, Feeding Bottles and Infant Foods (Regulation of Production,
Supply and Distribution) Act of 1992, banning advertisement of baby food and providing for
punishments.
- Additions to the list of hazardous occupations and sectors banning child labour, particularly the 10
October 2006 notification relating to children in domestic sector and dhabas and eateries
- Amendment to the Information Technology Act in 2008 to address use of children for pornography and
their abuse in print and digital form
- Several amendments in the criminal legislation, particularly the Code of Criminal Procedure and the
Indian Evidence Act to provide protection for victims of rape in the course of investigation, medical
examination and trial
3

4. • New laws
- Several laws for persons with disability came into existence between 1992 and 1995 - The
Rehabilitation Council of India Act, 1992, The Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities,
Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995, and The National Trust for Welfare of
Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities Act, 1999.
- A new JJ Act in 2000 and then an amendment in 2006 as an attempt to bring it in conformity
with the international law and principles of diversion and restorative justice.
- The Commission for the Protection of Child Rights Act, enacted in 2005
- Enactment of the Prohibition of Child Marriages Act in 2006
- The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act in 2009
- The State of Goa framed a comprehensive law for children called the Goa Children’s Act, 2003
• Judicial Orders
- Progressive court orders invoking the CRC
- Orders upholding children’s rights in certain key areas such as:
- Guardianship - recognising mother too as a natural
guardian;
- right to education – monitoring its implementation;
- right to food and adequate nutrition – requiring universalisation of
ICDS and monitoring implementation;
- protection of victims of child sexual abuse and witness assistance;
- juvenile justice – monitoring implementation and requiring child
protection system to be put in place
4

5. Increased resources
• A separate budget statement on children as
part of the Finance Bill presented in and
passed by the Parliament every year.
• Allocations for children in the union budget
have increased by 4.3 percent between 1990
and 2007, with a corresponding increase of
4.1 percent in the expenditure
5

6. What we have as General Measures of
implementation…
• 57 laws and 60 legal provisions
• 9 policy documents
• A National Plan of Action for children
• Many goals and targets set out under five year plans
• 73 central government’s budgeted programmes and
schemes for children from 9 Ministries
• A full-fledged Ministry
• A National Commission for Protection of Child Rights
and 12 State Commissions
• Increased resources
6

7. 7

8. What has changed in children’s life…
Health and Survival between 1992-93 and 2005-2006
• Improvement of 18.6 percentage points in birth registration
• A decline of 11.3 percentage points in child marriages
• A 10 point a reduction in NMR and 12 point reduction in post-NMR
• 22 point reduction in IMR
• U-5 Mortality has reduced by 35 points
• Increase of 8.1 percentage points in immmunisation levels
• Decline of 23 percentage points in children <3 yrs who are under-weight
• Decline of 15 percentage points in children <3 yrs who are stunted
• A 4.8 percentage points reduction in anaemia among children aged 6-59 months
• 13.5 percentage points decline in Children <5 yrs with symptoms of Acute
Respiratory Infection
• Increase of 5 percentage points in children <5 yrs taken to a health provider for
treatment of ARI treatment
• Increase of 3.6 percentage points in children <5 yrs taken to a health provider for
treatment of Diarrhoea
8

9. Education between 2005-2006 and 2008-2009 (the period for which district
Level data is available)
• 19.4 point increase in GER
• 1.08 percentage point increase in enrolment of Scheduled Caste children
• 2.02 percentage point increase in enrolment of Scheduled Tribe children
• 12.1 percentage point reduction in the overall drop-out rates, with drop-
out rate falling by 12.6 percentage points in the case of SC children and
15.7 percentage points in the case of ST children
• Reduction in number of schools with a single teacher by 0.4 percentage
points
• Schools with Teacher-Pupil ratio >100 has gone down by 0.5 percentage
points
• 2.1 point decline in percentage distribution of single-classroom schools
• 10.1 percentage points increase in schools with common toilets
• 19 percentage points increase in schools with girls toilets
• 0.1 percentage point increase in schools with drinking water facilities
• 21.3 point increase in percentage of schools with ramps
• Number of students per class has reduced from 40 to 36
• 4.7 point increase in percentage of schools within 1-5 km of the Cluster
Resource Centres
9

10. Child Protection post ICPS
Numbers of statutory bodies to be established for child
protection under the ICPS has increased since the scheme
ICPS was launched in 2009.
• The Child Welfare Committees (CWCs) have doubled from
240 to the present number of 548;
• There are 561 Juvenile Justice Boards (JJBs) as against 211;
• 660 Special Juvenile Police units (SJPUs) have also been set
up;
• 21 State Child Protection Societies (SCPS) have been set up;
• District Child Protection Societies (DCPS) are set up in 14
States; and
• Over 90,000 children reached through the ICPS.
10

11. What is disturbing…
• Child sex-ratio has fallen from 945 in 1991 to 914 in 2011
• The sex ratio for adolescents in the 13-19 age group declined from around
898 in 1981 to 884 1991. In 2001, sex ratio in the age group 10-19 years
was 882, lower than the sex ratio of 927 in the 0-6 years’ age group. It was
902 for younger adolescents aged 10-14 years and 858 for older
adolescents aged 15-19 years.
• Between 1992-93 and 2005-06 –
- Percentage of children with low birth weight went up by 17.7 points
- Percentage children <3 yrs who are wasted also increased by 6.4
points
- There is decline of 2 percentage points in the use of Oral Hydration
Salts (ORS) for treatment of Diarrhoea
• Between 1998-99 and 2005-06, despite more children seeking treatment
for Diarrhoea percentage who got any ORT or increased fluids declined by
5 points and percentage of children getting no treatment also went up by
1.3 points. 11

12. • Enrolment percentage of the disabled fell by 0.24 points between
2005-06 and 2008-09
• Even with more budget being spent on school infrastructure,
percentage of schools with no buildings has gone up by almost one
point between 2005-06 and 2008-09
• Ratio of Primary to Upper Primary Schools has reduced from 2.6:1
to 2.3:1
• Percentage of schools within 1km of the Cluster Resource Centres
(CRC) has declined by 8 points, while percentage of schools more
than 5 kms away from the CRC has increased by 3.3 points
• Child labour has increased by 12.23% between 1991 and 2001
12

13. There has been an increase in all crimes against children.
• Child murder - 26.7%
• Foeticide - 173.3 percent
• Abetment to suicide - 557%.
• Exposure and abandonment of children below 12 years of age –
74%
• Kidnapping and abduction of children – 935%
• Buying of girls for prostitution - 700%
• Selling of girls for prostitution - 67.6%
The figures for cases registered for buying and selling do not
match. This reflects lack of coordination between the police in the
source areas and the destination areas; inadequate training of
police on registration of cases and lack of will to deal with the
cases in their entirety.
But the rate of conviction has gone down by 13.8 percentage points
between 2001 and 2009.
13

14. • While infanticide declined by 51.9%, it is more
likely that cases get booked as murder than
infanticide.
• Data on child marriage cases shows inadequate
use of the present child marriage law as only 3
cases were registered under the prohibition of
Child Marriages Act, 2006 in 2009. The NFHS data
on the other hand shows 27.1 percent of children
15-19 years of age as married.
• Although there has been an increase in the
percentage of cases which get chargesheeted, it
was only 2.6 percentage points in the 9 year
period from 2001 to 2009.
14

15. Crimes by children – a clear manifestation of distress in
children’s life
• Burglary increased by 881.6% between 2001 and 2009.
• Over 300 percent increase is witnessed in rape, kidnapping and abduction,
dacoity, cheating and violation of the excise law by children.
• Counterfeiting, attempt to murder, robbery gambling and causing death by
rash and negligent driving are some of the crimes by children showing an
over 200 percent increase.
• There is a 0.7 point increase in the pendency percentage of crimes by
children
Violent crimes by children are a reflection of society at large, the
insecurities encompassing people’s lives.
Children are unable to find any other meaningful existence and their
energies are not being channelised in the right direction.
15

16. Gaps and Challenges
•There are no measurable goals and targets and no reliable
data on child vulnerability.
•Shifting of goals and irrationality in setting out targets to be
achieved is clearly visible.
- 100% registration of births, deaths and marriages was the
goal in 2000, 2005 and even today under different plans
- Targets for reducing IMR shifted from reaching a level of
below 60 by 2002 in the 9th FYP. It was revised in the
National Health Policy, 2002 and the National Plan of
Action for Children, 2005 to a reduction to half the
number. In the 10th FYP, the target was a reduction to 45
by 2010 and 28 by 2012, which could not be met. The
Eleventh plan retained the ambition of IMR reduction to
28 but did not set a deadline for it.
16

17. • There is no uniform definition of the ‘child’ in our policy and legal documents
• The Policy Framework is as outdated as 1974
• Other CRC Committee’s recommendations not complied with include:
- Lack of a uniform code for children
- Lack of a uniform law on adoption
- Lack of harmonisation between national laws and personal laws
- Raising the age of criminal responsibility
- Extending the Juvenile Justice law to the whole country including J&K
- Amendment to the CrPC to remove provisions that provide immunity to government
officials against criminal action
- Guaranteeing free and compulsory education for all children up to 14 years of
age
- Promotion of child participation in family, schools, institutions as well as judicial and
administrative proceedings
- Reporting on racial discrimination and Xenophobia
- Training panchayats on children’s rights
- Measures to ensure psychological recovery of child victims of crimes
- Prohibition of corporal punishment in family settings
- Promoting non-violent forms of discipline
- Removal of India’s Declaration on Article 32 on elimination of child labour
- Ratification of ILO Convention 138 on Minimum age of employment
- Ratification of the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or
Degrading Treatment or Punishment, 1984
- Ratification of the Convention relating to the status of refugees and its protocol
17

18. Several measures taken in compliance with the
CRC commitments remain inadequate.
• All States do not have a State Commission for Protection of Child Rights
• In 9 out of 12 states where they exists, no rules were framed prior to their
establishment
• The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights and the State
Commissions face resource crunch for effective functioning
• The Goals set out in the National Plan of Action for Children have crossed
their deadline. The NPAC requires revision.
• Lack of state plans hampers implementation of the National Plan even
when it exists
• While the CRC mandates consultations with children in the decisions
concerning them, this is rare, and negligible when it comes to law making
and designing policies and programmes.
18

19. Way Forward
Despite several positive measures, the situation of children demands improvement in
the following areas:
• Creation of a child rights index to monitor progress at both central and state level
• A systematic and regular assessment of children’s situation and data base
management, providing disaggregated data at district level
• Incentives for states for their performance on child rights indicators
• Greater investment of infrastructure and human and financial resources and
proper utilisation of funds
• Clearly demarcated funds for implementation of laws
• Greater investment in training and capacity building
• Planning for children in tribal areas and areas under conflict and monitor progress
• Impact assessments
• Convergence and coordination within all levels of governance
• Improved reporting on international commitments
• Greater transparency in accountability even as the government engages in
consultative processes with civil society
19

20. • Children also wish to have a better say in law and policy making.
• They wish the Government would work towards taking care of their
families so that they are not deprived of a loving and caring family.
• They want birth certificates that will help them access benefits of the
existing schemes easily.
• Disabled children want care, treatment and facilities to grow and
develop in a healthy manner.
• The mentally challenged of course cannot speak for themselves, but will
they never be able to enjoy their rights ?
• Children in conflict areas long for attention.
• They don’t want to be displaced from their homes, parks, playgrounds
and all they seek is a safe and secure life.
20

21. THANK YOU
21