IMR
Under MDG 4, one of the targets is to reduce Infant Mortality by two-thirds between 1990 and 2015. At the national level, it translates into a goal of reducing IMR from 88 per thousand live births in 1990 to 29 in 2015. IMR of India as of 2013 was 40 per thousand live births and it’s unlikely that India will achieve the target.
Crime against Children
As per information available with the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), a total of 33,052 cases, 38,172 cases and 58,224 cases were registered under crime against children during 2011-2013 respectively, showing an increasing trend.
Number of Missing Children in India
As per the data provided by National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB), on an average less than one lakh children went missing every year since 2011.
|
Sl. No.
|
Year
|
Number of missing children
|
|
1.
|
2011
|
90654
|
|
2.
|
2012
|
65038
|
|
3.
|
2013
|
77721
|
|
4.
|
2014
|
73549
|
Child Sexual Abuse
The child sexual abuse is an under-reported offence in India, which has reached epidemic proportion. A recent study on prevalence of sexual abuse among adolescents in Kerala, reported that 36 per cent of boys and 35 per cent of girls had experienced sexual abuse at some point of time. A similar study conducted by the Government of India in 17,220 children and adolescents to estimate the burden of sexual abuse revealed shocking results and showed that every second child in the country was sexually abused; among them, 52.94 per cent were boys and 47.06 per cent were girls.
Child Marriage
While boys are also affected by child marriage, this is an issue that impacts upon girls in far larger numbers and with more intensity, so much so that nearly half of women age 18-29 (46 percent) and more than one-quarter of men age 21-29 (27 percent) are estimated to have married before reaching the legal minimum age at marriage (NFHS III).