The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), a research wing of the Union Health Ministry, is mulling to develop a registry and tracking system for “children in difficult circumstances,” to enable their inclusion in Government’s various programmes.
According to an ICMR concept paper, such children include street kids, working kids, destitutes, refugees, those with disabilities, juvenile delinquents, drug addicts, those suffering from HIV/AIDS, victims of domestic violence and abuse, sexual abuse and natural disasters.
“There is lack of systematically collected data to address the above issues, absence of credible data leads to many of such children being excluded from Government programmes and services. Many of them have no legal status or identity, as they are mobile and belong to cyclically disadvantaged communities,” says the paper.
This, despite that a large population of children remains exploited in various forms and several million (who should be in schools) contribute to the country’s labour force. There is a significant proportion of population of children in difficult circumstances but major focus of the child health care initiatives in India has so far been on case management and disease specific interventions aiming at child survival, it notes.
Citing a census conducted by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), it says, there are an estimated 37,059 children who live on streets of Mumbai. Two out of five of them have witnessed physical, verbal or sexual abuse or forced starvation at some point in their lives. Government protection like the Right to Education Act does not reach them, with nearly one out of four in the school-going age remaining illiterate.
“The prevalence of high levels of child labour is attributable to the fact that primary education for children is not compulsory in India,” the note says while seeking proposals from the researchers in these areas.
“The data bank will also help in developing intervention programs for such children, enabling coverage in government program. ICMR is looking to address these issues through promoting social and developmental pediatrics. The program would help obtain nationally representative data on children in difficult circumstances, children with special social and health needs,” says the paper.