Districts of Odisha, UP and MP score lowest on 2020 Child Well-Being Index

Districts of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha have scored lowest in the second edition of the India Child Well-Being Report by NGO World Vision India.

The ‘India Child Well-being Report 2020’ provides data on various child-centric indicators and analyses them through nine dimensions; namely life, bodily health, bodily integrity, senses, imagination, thoughts, emotions, practical reasons, affiliation, play and control over one’s environment. The report also maps the data comparison across different regions, states and districts.

At the release, Krishnamurthy. V. Subramanian Chief Economic Advisor – Government of India in his keynote address said, “Our government is fully committed towards securing the rights and well-being of children. Economies grow when child development is a priority. Tracking districts data with a set of real-time indicators will promote healthy competition and encourage each district to achieve the set mandate. I congratulate World Vision India for initiating this discussion using government data.”

Technical partners for the ‘India Child Well-being Report 2020’, include Pathfinder International India, OP Jindal School of Banking and Finance, Poverty Learning Foundation and the University of Melbourne.

Madhav Bellamkonda, National Director and CEO, World Vision India said, “Investments in early childhood development are pertinent for a better tomorrow for our children, especially at a time where uncertainty has intensified around us. Child Well-Being is an important conversation in the development sector and it is critical that we understand it in a holistic manner. We are confident that this report will serve as a guide for policymakers, practitioners and civil societies to understand Child Well-Being and develop child-friendly policies.”

The report was released in the presence of Nayan Chakravarty, Director, Pathfinder International India, Amlan Gupta, Associate Professor & Assistant Dean (Research), OP Jindal Global University, Piyush Tiwari, Professor in Property, Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, University of Melbourne and Vijay Kumar, CEO, Poverty Learning Foundation.

This report has adopted Nussbaum’s capability approach to measure Child Well-Being in India. Using capabilities identified by Nussbaum, an index was constructed to define and capture the multi dimensionality of Child Well-Being.

The Child Well-Being Index is a tool designed to measure and track children’s well-being comprehensively. The Child Well-Being approach puts the quality of life and happiness of the child at the forefront and aims at increasing the capabilities of the child in accordance with the basic indicators in each domain.

The report captures a region-wise analysis in terms of the Child Well-Being index across 640 districts in 28 states and 9 union territories using 99 indicators.

i) Region-wise composite index scores for the top 5 districts:

Southern Region			Northern Region
District	Scores	State Name	District	Scores	State Name
Kottayam	0.64	Kerala	Sahibzada Ajit Singh Nagar	0.63	Punjab
Kanyakumari	0.63	Tamil Nadu	Kangra	0.63	Himachal Pradesh
Ernakulam	0.63	Kerala	Rupnagar	0.63	Punjab
Pathanamthitta	0.63	Kerala	Jammu	0.63	Jammu and Kashmir (UT)
Krishnagiri	0.62	Tamil Nadu	Panchkula	0.62	Haryana
Eastern Region			Western Region
District	Scores	State Name	District	Scores	State Name
South Andaman	0.58	Andaman and Nicobar Islands (UT)	North Goa	0.62	Goa
Darjeeling	0.56	West Bengal	Pune	0.62	Maharashtra
Haora	0.55	West Bengal	Sindhudurg	0.62	Maharashtra
Hugli	0.55	West Bengal	Amravati	0.60	Maharashtra
Nadia	0.55	West Bengal	Nagpur	0.60	Maharashtra
North Eastern Region			Central Region
District	Scores	State Name	District	Scores	State Name
Kohima	0.60	Nagaland	Durg	0.55	Chhattisgarh
Kamrup Metropolitan	0.59	Assam	Bilaspur	0.54	Chhattisgarh
Phek	0.59	Nagaland	Indore	0.54	Madhya Pradesh
Wokha	0.58	Nagaland	Dhamtari	0.54	Chhattisgarh
Lower Subansiri	0.58	Arunachal Pradesh	Hoshangabad	0.53	Madhya Pradesh

ii) Region-wise composite index scores for the bottom 5 districts:

Jyothi Shukla, Lecturer- University of Melbourne presented the report findings and said that, “The data analysis exercise has brought to the fore compelling insights on Child Well-Being in India. The report opens avenues to improve comparative data covering different regions, states and districts. The next significant step would be to mine insights from the Index Report and work on improving grassroots infrastructure for the wellness of India’s children.”

World Vision India and its partners hope that this report will serve as an important tool for decision makers to initiate demand-driven policy changes at the country and state level.

The report is expected to enable the country to take a closer look at the district- level and identify the direct and indirect factors affecting the Well-Being of Children and implement appropriate interventions. The report is also expected to initiate dialogues on the Well-Being of Children and help create a more nurturing childhood for India’s children.

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