There are 444 million children in India under the age of 18 years. This constitutes 37% of the total population in the country (Census 2011)

Education:

• 1 in 4 children of school-going age is out of school in our country – 99 million children in total have dropped out of school (Census 2011)
• Out of every 100 children, only 32 children finish their school education age-appropriately (District Information System for Education (DISE) 2014-15)
• Only 2% of the schools offer complete school education from Class 1 to Class 12 (District Information System for Education (DISE) 2014-15)

Child labour and exploitation:

• There are 10.13 million child labourers between 5-14 years in India (Census 2011)
• India has 33 million working children between the ages of 5-18 years. In parts of the country, more than half the child population is engaged in labour (Census 2011)
• Every 8 minutes, a child goes missing in India – kidnapping and abduction is the largest crime against children in our country (District Crime Record Bureau (DCRB) 2014)
• Over the last 10 years, crimes against children has increased 5 times over (District Crime Record Bureau (DCRB) Data Series)
• Fear of failure in examinations in the second highest cause of suicides in children (Accidents and Suicide Deaths in India (ASDI) 2014)

Health and Nutrition :

Children:

• 19.8 million children below age 6 in India are undernourished (ICDS 2015)
• Only 9.6% of children between 6-23 months in the country receive an adequate diet (NFHS 4, 2015-16)
• 38% (1 in 3 )of children between 0-5 years are stunted in the country (NFHS 4, 2015-16)
• 21% (1 in 5) of the children in the country suffer from wasting (NFHS 4, 2015-16)
• 36% of children under 5 years of age are underweight in India (NFHS 4, 2015-16)
• 58% of children between 6months – 5 years were found to be anaemic in the country (NFHS 4, 2015-16)
• Total Immunisation coverage in the country stood at 62% in 2015-16 (NFHS 4, 2015-16)
• 21% of the births in the country were home births (NFHS 4, 2015-16)

Maternal Health:

• Only 21% of mothers (1 in 5) received full antenatal care in the country (NFHS 4, 2015-16)
• More than 50% of the pregnant women aged 15-49 years were found to be anaemic (NFHS 4, 2015-16)

Girl Child:

• 42% of married women in India were married as children (District Information System for Education (DISE) 3)
• 1 in every 3 child brides in the world is a girl in India (UNICEF)
• India has more than 45 lakh girls under 15 years of age who are married with children. Out of these, 70% of the girls have 2 children (Census 2011)