The State of World’s Children report was launched on Tuesday by State Minister of Education Deepak Joshi. This is annual flagship report which says that Poverty, illiteracy and early deaths await world’s most disadvantaged children: UNICEF Making the right choices now can, and will, reverse this fate, new report says.
The State of the World’s Children, UNICEF’s annual flagship report, paints a stark picture of what is in store for the world’s poorest children if governments, donors, businesses and international organizations do not accelerate efforts to address their needs. The report notes that significant progress has been made in saving children’s lives, getting children into school and lifting people out of poverty. Global under-five mortality rates have been more than halved since 1990, boys and girls attend primary school in equal numbers in 129 countries, and the number of people living in extreme poverty worldwide is almost half of what it was in the 1990s.
But this progress has been neither even nor fair, does the report say. The poorest children are twice as likely to die before their fifth birthday and to be chronically malnourished than the richest
After the report launch Deepak Joshi said it is important and democratic to listen to children and with engaging communities will help make children schemes a success. He listened to children and issues they had raised, said that he will look into the concerns raised by them.
Nirmala Buch, President MP Child Rights Observatory, said it is important to see what UNICEF report says and see what steps we as CSO and Government can take to make sure that children rights are realised. She stressed on the importance of all right for all children at all times. It is not only about infrastructure in Education, we need to look into quality & learning levels of children, she added.
Raghvendra Sharma Chair MP State Commission for Protection of Child Rights said we need to engage communities and reach out to children who getting dropped out of the schools.
Manish Mathur, Officer In Charge, UNICEF, Madhya Pradesh said, “We need to specifically focus on reaching the most disadvantaged children first. Since we are talking of education, health, data tells us that 379 children age of five years die in Madhya Pradesh each day – something which needs urgent action. Nearly every second child (42%) is stunted which impacts life outcomes at all stages be it education, earning capacity or maximising opportunities. For education 10.14 % children drop out in Madhya Pradesh at Primary level & 11.70 % at Upper Primary level. In order to ensure that every child gets a quality education it is important to look at this system holistically and in an integrated manner. Education is a continuum and the system must support that fact.”