The states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh have topped the Child Well-being Index 2019 Rankings. Among the Union Territories, Puducherry is at the top of the Child Well-being Index 2019 Rankings. Meghalaya, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh feature last in the Child Well-being Index 2019 Rankings, mainly due to poor nutrition and high child mortality rate.
Child Well-being Index 2019 Rankings:
- Among the states, Kerala (0.76), Tamil Nadu (0.67) and Himachal Pradesh (0.67) bagged the top three spots in the ranking.
- The reason for Kerala’s top ranking is its exceptional performance in health, nutrition and education facilities. It also performed better than other states in addressing concerns like malnutrition and child survival rate. It has fared better in providing access to a healthy environment in terms of clean drinking water and sanitation facilities.
- Meghalaya (0.53), Jharkhand (0.50) and Madhya Pradesh (0.44) are at the last position in the index.
- Child survival, nutrition and access to water and sanitation are the indicators that Jharkhand needs to take care of as per the index.
- Low performance in the areas of child survival, nutrition, crimes against children and juvenile crimes, made Madhya Pradesh rank at the bottom.
- Ranking of UTs: Puducherry is at the top with a score of 0.77 and Dadra and Nagar Haveli is at the bottom with a score of 0.52
About Child Well-being Index 2019:
- This report is released by the non government organisation World Vision India and research institute IFMR LEAD.
- It aims to serve as a tool to measure and tracks children’s well-being comprehensively.
- The dimensions of the Child Well-being index include healthy individual development, positive relationships and protective contexts.
- The states have been ranked using 24 indicators to develop the computation of the child well-being index. The index captures the performance of each state and union territory on a composite child well-being score.
- The report projects the multi-dimensional approach towards measuring child well-being as it goes beyond mere income poverty.
It is important that all stakeholders prioritise and invest in the well-being of the children as Children are the future of the nation and have the potential to transform the country.