Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh government despite several efforts, is not able to make a huge difference in the state of children. Child marriage, child labour, crime against children, infant mortality rate and malnutrition and in education, MP has some of the highest failure rates. It stands at 8th position in female child marriage and 5th in female child marriages in rural areas.
According to NFHS 4 report, 30 per cent women of age 20-24 got married before 18 years of age. Jhabua has the highest child marriage rate with 54 per cent women married before 18 years. According to Child Rights Observatory Madhya Pradesh (CROMP), the rate of child marriage is directly affected by education. The difference in the rate of child marriage among illiterate women and women who have studied higher secondary, is 4 per cent. At least 25 per cent illiterate women got married whereas just 6 per cent women who studied higher secondary and above classes, got married. Apart, 24.4 per cent Jhabua girls of age 15-19 years gave birth, the figures are 17.1 per cent for Tikamgarh, 14.8 per cent for Barwani and 13.5 per cent for Alirajpur who gave birth or got pregnant between age15-19.
According to NFHS 4, 42.8 per cent children in state are underweight, 68.9 per cent children are stunted.
Child labour in state
MP has 8,06,546 working children of age 5-14 years. MP ranks 5th in child labour. Among these 53.49 per cent are boys and 46.51 per cent are girls. Out of the total child labourers 87.9 per cent are from rural areas and 12.1 per cent in urban areas. Alirajpur has highest number of child labours with 14.8 per cent followed by Jhabua at 14.36 per cent.
Crime against children in state
According to NCRB 2015, MP ranks second in crime against children, with 12,589 registered cases. According to CROMP, crimes in urban areas have been found more against children. Jabalpur had 874 cases, Bhopal 790 cases, Dhar 724, Indore 644, Sagar 572, Satna 547, Vidisha 417 and Gwalior 437.
Infant mortality and malnutrition
MP ranks third in infant mortality rate with 51 out of 1,000 children dying before celebrating their first birthday. Also, 65 children die before turning 5 years. Madhya Pradesh also lags behind in vaccination. Only 53 per cent children in state get complete vaccination between 12-23 years. MP stands at 29th rank when it comes to vaccination.
Education and infrastructure
According to NEUPA 2015 report, MP stands at 30th among 36 states and union territories. 3.45 per cent schools don’t have toilets in the state. Only 28.8 per cent schools have electricity. It is ironical that in the age of digitisation 84.83 per cent schools in MP don’t have computers. About 10.82 per cent boys and 11.88 per cent girls don’t reach upper primary level from primary classes.
