Indias first child well being index launched, Tamil Nadu is on top
Posted on: 30/Aug/2019 9:43:47 AM
The people belonging to the state of Tamil Nadu could feel proud and happy by this piece of information.
India’s first child well being index was launched on Wednesday, 28th August 2019, by World Vision India and IFMR LEAD at the New Delhi based India Habitat Centre. It is revealed that Tamil Nadu has scored high and this is now spoken in great esteem by many.
It must be noted that the child well being index is a tool designed to track and measure the child’s well being comprehensively. Factors like healthy individual development, positive relationships and protective contexts play an important role here and these are the three dimensions of the child well being index. To develop the computation of child well being index, as many as 24 indicators were selected.
It is important to note that this child well being index captures the performance of each union territory and state on a composite child well being zone. States like Kerala, TN, HP were ranked as top performing states and these states have scored 0.76, 0.67 and 0.67 respectively. Other states such as Meghalaya, Jharkhand and MP have found a place at the bottom with scores like 0.53, 0.50 and 0.44 respectively. It is sensational to note that Union Territory of Puduchery scored 0.77 and was ranked as top and Dadra and Nager Haveli were ranked at the bottom with a composite score of 0.52.
According to Mr. Amitabh Kant, CEO, Niti Ayog, India’s child well being index is a very crucial report. It could be mined by government as well by the civil organizations for the purpose of child well being. It is worthy to note that this report gives information about health, nutrition education sanitation and child protection. He spoke about how the government is fully committed towards securing the rights and well being of children and how investments are being made in this aspect.
It was later mentioned by Sharon Buteau, executive director, IFMR LEAD that there would be more research required on this subject and more attention would be drawn towards the child well being.
The compelling insights of child well being in India have been brought to light by the research. Sharon added that key indicators such as mobile usage, digital access, financial literacy, mental health and quality of relationships between parents/peers and children would be studied in the future.
Children have the potential to transform the country but when neglected they would exacerbate the burden of poverty and inequality. This was confirmed by Mr. Cherian Thomas, National Director and CEO, World Vision India. He wanted the stakeholders to invest in the children.
Important point to be noted is the report has come as a wake up call for the states to look at their respective scores on the dimensions of the child well being.
