Child Welfare Programmes in India

A country with a population of more than 1.2 Billion, of which more than 27 percent lies below 14 years of age, significance of education and future employability is something that several government and non government organizations have picked up. Many Child Welfare Programmes catering to education, health and hygiene, income generation and inclusive growth like Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, Right to free and compulsory Education, mid day meal and so on and so forth have been rolled out by the government of India. However the enrolment and retention are the two major drawbacks that these programmes are currently facing. Owing to dependency ratio as high as 52 percent, children are forced to drop out of schools to financially support their families by begging, working as domestic help or at times working in environment as hazardous as cracker manufacturing. This is the major lacuna that NGOs like Lakshyam are targeting at; by providing holistic development of children. Lakshyam is working religiously to provide basic education to student in order to get them enrolled in formal schools. Apart from proving basic education in subjects like Hindi, English and Mathematics; they are providing various skill development trainings like Bottle decoration, diya decoration, handicrafts made out of waste material and so on so forth. This part time source of income let this underprivileged section to continue with their education. Biases in enrolment are another issue that has not been given enough substance. State of female enrolment and retention is all the more dismal due to the societal biases and high masculinity index of the country. Welfare schemes like beti bachao beti padhao have been initiated by the government; however a lot of work needs to be done at the ground level to change the mindset of people. 

With India set to become the country with largest population in working age, instead of reaping the benefits of demographic dividend, it may fall is the vicious circle of unemployment and lowering demand due to high proportion of jobs in unorganized sector. Hence it is imperative to take immediate steps to restructure the Child welfare programmes in India, as any thoughtful measure taken to improve the life of children at this stage would have impact on the generations to follow. Also under the UNDP Millennium development goal 2 and 3 primary education and gender equality & women empowerment respectively are the two issues that India as a country is committed to. Hence programmes needs to be (re)structured after rigorous in-sighting, one needs to know all the stakeholders and their role in decision making process. Programme touching all the decision making point is essential to (re)structure the welfare programmes in India as decision making is collaborative. Last but not the least is effective implementation, which is not meagre creating awareness but continuously, improving the system based on the 360 degree feedback that you get. 

With its outreach programme across different states of the country, Laksyam intends to involve all the stakeholders from children to parents to society at large. It has brought together the strata which are far from each other in terms of opportunities and resources with its Toy Library Programme. This has been a perfect example of uplifting the JJ Bastis of Vasant Kunj; which are right in the middle of cities yet so far. Seeking a society with equitable resources and opportunities is essential for reaping demographic dividend and in order to attain equitable society, the need of the hour is effective Child welfare schemes in developing countries like India.