fun and frolic is probably whats in store for thousands of children in india on tuesday childrens day however there are crores of other kids in the same country who unaware of the days significance will probably go to bed hungry as usual not knowing when they would get their next meal the reality of two indias is nowhere more heartbreaking and stark than in the state of this underprivileged majority children are the generation of hope but how can we have any hope when facts tell a different tale india has the largest number of children estimated at 40 crore great but we also have the dubious distinction of having the largest number of malnourished children kids affected by aids street children and child labourers and one of the largest numbers of children out of school says shanta sinha magsaysay awardee and chairperson of m v foundation an ngo that is working to eliminate child labour in andhra pradesh theres no sense of shame or outrage in india that so many of our children are not going to school about 95 in every 1000 children born here do not see their fifth birthday only 38 below the age of 2 are immunised of the 12 crore girls born 30 lakh do not see their 15th birthday and 10 lakh their first birthday onethird of these deaths take place at birth our children are being denied food security social security right to education and health even right to life food firstamong the worst forms of deprivation has to be of food especially among children it stunts their growth making them susceptible to diseases according to unicefs 2006 report card on global nutrition progress for children south asia has staggeringly high levels of underweight children 46 india bangladesh and pakistan account for half of the worlds underweight children some 47 of indian children are malnourished the same as ethiopia before we blame income disparities consider this 30 out of 37 countries in subsaharan africa report lower levels of child malnutrition than india and its not a nationwide phenomenon a world bank report undernourished children observes that bihar up mp and rajasthan account for 43 of the cases this is mainly due to deficient diet limited access to safe drinking water sanitation and health services and the low social and educational status of women who are the primary caregivers of children inadequate care of women and girls results in low birthweight babiesthe integrated child development services the governments 31yearold flagship programme to take care of the nutritional challenges faced by young children and pregnant women has probably prevented famines but not addressed issues of livelihood and even distribution of food within the family also the scheme is currently reaching only 4 crore children out of a total population of 164 crore children under the age of 6 according to a new budget analysis by delhibased ngo haq centre for child rights even the funds allocated for schemes for children are meagre there