Child Wellbeing Index

Child Well-being is a tool that enables a person to measure and track children’s well-being. In the context of health, the index needs to make sure that proper care of a child is taken in the first 1000 days of their life. Stunting is a big problem connected to a lack of safe water and sanitation. The Child Wellbeing index was released in India by a non-governing body, World vision India and the research institute IMFR lead. Follow the write-up to learn about the release of Child Wellbeing and what it has shown in its reports. 

About the Child Wellbeing Index

It is a tool created to measure and track children’s well-being. The report provides nutrition, education, health, child protection, and sanitation insights. The Child well-being index calculates the well-being of children based on three dimensions: protective contexts, positive relationships, and healthy individual development. It is a very important report that civil organizations and the government can mine. The major objective of preparing the index measuring children’s well-being is to focus on India’s child-wellbeing under-researched theme and motivate the policy and academic conversations on associated problems. 

Composite of Child Wellbeing Index 

There are three dimensions of the Child Wellbeing Index, i.e., Healthy Individual Development, Protective contexts and Positive relationships. Let’s discuss them one by one- 

• Healthy Individual Development: The healthy individual development of child well-being defines good health and education as the crucial part of a child’s life. This list focuses on the approach to reaching a complete state of social, mental, and physical health of a child, satisfying their needs, and bringing the required change in their lives. The indicators of Healthy Individual Development include stunting, underweight, immunization, drop-out rate, sanitation, drinking water, pupil teaching ratio, etc. 

• Positive relationships: Relationships play a vital role in the well-being of children. It states that a child should grow up in a happy and peaceful family environment for their harmonious development. It also suggests analyzing the influence of parents, neighborhoods, and families on child well-being, which is mainly responsible for fostering their confidential growth. The indicators of the positive relationships include the sex ratio, birth registration, suicide rates, and juvenile crimes. 

• Protective contexts: The protective contexts of child well-being focus on the economic and social context, defining a child’s access to various life opportunities. It needs to be situated in a context where a child experiences protection, feels valued, and is given social justice when needed. As a result, the governing bodies will ensure the child’s mental, physical, spiritual, social, and moral development by providing adequate living standards. It includes indicators like child labor, poverty, housing, early marriage, road lengths, crimes against children, etc. 

Key highlights of the report

Among all other Indian states, Kerala, Himachal Pradesh and Tamil Nadu ranked top in the index list. Among the Union territories of India, Puducherry ranked in the first position. At the same time, states like Meghalaya, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand got the lowest rank concerning child-wellbeing in their regions. The data on the report has shown that states are not doing so well in indicators of health, even if they are performing best in overall child-well being. 

Moreover, the reports have shown the recent data, adopting a multi-dimensional approach to measure and track children’s well-being to move out of income poverty. The report calls for immediate action to improve the reports in the upcoming period. 

The organization World Vision India which has generated the child well-being report has full faith in life in all its fullness for the children of India. The organization expects to develop communication between bureaucrats, media, elected representatives, academia, private entities, and the civil society of India., focusing on high rates of malnutrition and productivity losses and ways to help the millions of children in the country. 

Need of the hour

All the Indian States should focus on their performance and scores, respectively. After the states measure and track children’s well-being and analyze their child-wellbeing dimensions, they should identify their areas of intervention as priorities with certain action plans. This should also seek budgetary allocations and policy-level changes. After that, the state governing bodies should begin their discussion with the stakeholders that can help improve the quality of life of all children in India. 

Way ahead

Children can rebuild and bring positive changes to the country. They are the assets for tomorrow’s productivity. Although, if they face any neglect, they may amplify the burden of inequality and poverty. 

Though, it is essential to prioritize and fund the child-wellbeing by all stakeholders. The next time, if one measures and tracks children’s well-being, it will show overall growth in the index reports. 

Conclusion 

The Child Wellbeing Index of India is a snapshot of how the children thrive and survive in the country. The index measure and tracks children’s well-being, including all States and Union territories. The index was prepared to drive people’s attention to under-researched themes and policy and academic conversations. Some important indicators the report should include for the future are digital access, mobile usage, mental health, and quality relationships, fostering an overall growth of child development in the country.