New Delhi, May 21
Ninety-seven percent of
12-year-olds were enrolled in elementary schools in 2013; up from 89
percent in 2006. Almost a third of children continue to show signs of
malnutrition at age 12 with high rates for economically and
socially-marginalised children and those in rural areas.
Forty-nine
percent of older children were still in school at the age of 19; nine
percent had yet to complete secondary education, eight percent had moved
on to vocational or post-secondary education and a third had started
university.
These are some of the findings of a pilot study in
the state of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana by Young Lives, an
international study of childhood poverty involving 12,000 children in
four countries over 15 years.
The report shows positive trends
in school enrolment and some indicators like access to clean drinking
water. However, nutrition and sanitation, especially in villages,
continues to be poor. Also, the situation of youth, especially young
women, has not improved much.
The study has released preliminary data in three aspects: education, health and development.
Education and Learning
While
significant improvement has been found in enrolment in schools for
12-year-olds by the Young Lives study, IndiaSpend has reported a
significant drop in enrolment at the higher secondary level in India.
The
study also found that there has been considerable progress in
addressing inequalities in school enrolment in the past few years,
especially the gender gap - where enrolment of boys and girls was almost
equal compared to a difference of four percentage points in 2006.
However, inequalities related to segregation of the poorest children
into government schools and the dip in learning levels across both
private and government schools continue.
There are worrying
signs with the study revealing a fall in learning standards since 2006,
with only half the children able to answer maths questions correctly,
compared with two-thirds of children in 2006.
Nutrition and Health
Stunting
in children due to malnourishment has not changed much - there was an
improvement of only four percentage points in eight years.
Socially-marginalised
groups and the poorest households need to be targeted in efforts to
reduce malnutrition, according to the study, with more than a third of
scheduled caste, scheduled tribe and other backward caste children being
thin compared to a quarter of children from other castes.
(IndiaSpend
has also reported how malnourishment is turning out to be fatal for
children across the country; about 56 out of 1,000 kids under the age of
five died in India in 2012 due to malnutrition, according to the Global
Nutrition Report.)
Youth and Development
The study has
reported how children from economically- and socially-disadvantaged
backgrounds were the most likely to have left school, many without
gaining a secondary-level certificate.
Fifty-one-and-a-half
percent of the total cohort of 19-year-olds had left school, with only
15.8 percent achieving secondary education.
Many young people
from marginalised groups had already started full-time work, mostly
self-employed or wage-employed in agriculture, with no further education
or vocational skills.
(IndiaSpend’s earlier reports have shown how youth are affected by lower levels of education and skills.)
While
36 percent of girls were married by the age of 19, according to the
study, only two percent of boys were married at that age.
Despite
the legal age for marriage being 18, 37 percent of girls were married
by 19 (an average age of 16.6 years). And 108 of them, from the selected
cohort, already have a child of their own (almost two-thirds of the
married girls).
Education and maternal health is adversely affected if girls marry early.
(In
arrangement with IndiaSpend.org, a data-driven, non-profit,
public-interest journalism platform, with which Saumya Tewari is a
policy analyst. The views expressed are personal)
