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About 20 million
children, about 4% of their population in India and higher than people living
in Delhi, are orphan. Of them, parents of only 0.3% children have died and rest
have been abandoned.
The figure is result of
a study done by SOS Children’s Village by analyzing data from National Family
Health Survey-3 for the year 2005-06 and the population estimation by the
Census of India to find the dark spots for children below the age of 18 in India.
It were the poorer
states such as Uttar
Pradesh, Biharand West Bengal, which had higher number of orphan children as
compared to richer northern and southern states of India. As a result, the
central zone has highest number of orphan children followed by east zone. The
two zones also cover most of the naxal affected regions in India.
“Poverty has been a
significant contributor in high orphan children in these states“. Social unrest
and terror --- militancy and naxalism -- are two another major factors behind
the high number of orphans in certain states”.
Orphan children for the
study were defined as those abandoned and whose both parents have died.
Situation of children with single parent has also been analysed in the study.
India has the highest
population of children below the age of 18 --- 41% of the total population.
Although over 4% of them are orphan as per the study, around 13% of them live
with either of their parent.
But what the study
highlight is that a large number of children in India struggle to survive leave
alone having access to education and other welfare measures. Some of these
children end up being trafficked or pushed into illegal works.
“Many of the children
who are trafficked are those whose parents have died or they have been
abandoned”. The only good news the study presents is that the overall
estimation of orphan children in% age terms is expected to fall by 2021
although their number will increase from present 20 million to 24 million.
However, there is no comparative data to indicate whether the number of orphan
children has increased or decreased.
The SOS Children Village
did not present the segregated data on sex-ratio these children to find out
whether abandoning of the children is based sex of the child or not.
“In case of poor people
abandoning is more because of economic reasons than gender,”