Census 2011: 5 million drop in children

Census 2011 counted five million children fewer than Census 2001. The drop in the 0-6 age group from 163.8 million to 158.8 million marks a negative growth of 3.08 per cent,Registrar General of India and Census Commissioner C Chandramouli said while releasing the report. The number of boys has dropped 2.42 per cent and that of girls 3.80 per cent.

The decline in growth of children’s population has come in spite of supplementary nutrition schemes run by the government. With a budget of about Rs 10,000 crore,the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) under the Women and Child Development Ministry caters to children of this age group. Those aged three and less are given a take-home ration and those between three and six are given nutritional food in the form of morning snacks and then served hot cooked meals.

Efforts are on (for effective implementation). However,these are just provisional figures, said Krishna Tirath,WCD minister.

Ministry officials say they follow World Health Organisation growth monitoring standards and maintain records of the growth of children covered till five years of age. For every severely malnourished child,Rs 6 per is spent on nutritional food; for others,the budget is Rs 4.