CHILD POVERTY IN DUNGARPUR, RAJASTHAN

A gross violation of children’s rights?

SAVE THE CHILDREN

WE ARE the world’s leading independent organisation for children.

OUR VISION is a world in which every child attains the right to survival, protection, development and participation.

OUR MISSION is to inspire breakthroughs in the way the world treats children, and to achieve immediate and lasting change in their lives

This paper was written by Disa Sjöblom and Neema Pant at Save the Children.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thanks are due to Mukesh Latth for helpful feedback on the different sections, and the Save the Children team in Dungarpur for collecting the information that forms the basis of this paper.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Government of Finland, has made funding available for this paper.

Photo credit: Save the Children and PEDO (Peoples Education and Development Organisation) in Dungarpur

Published by Save the Children FinlandKoskelantie 3800610 Helsinki, Finland +358 9 4135 5450

© Save the Children Finland, 2012

This publication is copyright, but may be reproduced by any method without fee or prior permission for teaching purposes, but not for resale. For copying in any other circumstances, prior written permission must be obtained from Save the Children

All names of children and adults have been changed to protect people’s identities.The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors’.

Cover photo: Shiv is a six-year-old orphan whose both parents have died. He lives on the mercy of relatives who give him food when he carries out various odd jobs for them.

Layout by Heidi Söyrinki

Table of Contents

Foreword 5

1 INTRODUCTION 6

2 CHILD SURVIVAL AND HEALTH 7

3 CHILD NUTRITION 9

4 CHILD EDUCATION 11

5 CHILD LABOUR 13

6 SPECIFIC GROUPS OF VULNERABLE CHILDREN 16

6.1 Orphans 16

6.2 Children with disability 19

7 INSENSITIVITY TOWARDS CHILDREN 21

Annex 1: References 22

Annex 2: Child vulnerability and poverty mapping 23

Foreword

As India moves ahead on the path of economic growth, inequality continues to be widened

living in poor households suffer the most. All evidence points to the fact that poor children will become poor adults unless the vicious cycle of inter-generational transfer of poverty is broken by making appropriate investments in children belonging to the communities that could not take part in the growth trend.

The state of Rajasthan displays enormous economic and social disparities and a bleak situ-ation on all child development indicators. The district of Dungarpur is an example of the above-mentioned trend. This paper presents a disheartening picture of child poverty and vulnerability in Dungarpur. It illustrates how household coping mechanisms, adopted during periods of stress and shock, and neglect of children’s immediate and long-term needs and rights aggravates child vulnerability and deprivation.

Save the Children has initiated several interventions to reduce child poverty in the district, but our efforts will not be adequate to reverse the trend. It requires for stronger collaboration and action on the part of the government and other development actors so that children in Dungarpur can enjoy their rights and develop to their full potential.

Latha Caleb

Director of ProgrammesSave the Children India

6

The district of Dungarpur is located in the southernmost tip of Rajasthan, well off the beaten tourist track of the exo-tic heritage of the state that tourists

1 Human development indicators are generally low for the district and the situation of children is grim. Dungarpur is an example of extensive violation of children’s rights and neither the government, NGOs nor any international development agency has appropriately addressed the situation. Poor children in Dungarpur have limited opportunities and development prospects. As per the Conven-

1992, children in Dungarpur have a right to survi-val; to develop to the fullest; to protection from

participate fully in family, cultural and social life. The convention also protects children’s rights by setting standards in health care; education; and legal, civil and social services. The UNCRC has little meaning in a place like Dungarpur where malnourishment, ill health, child mortality and child labour are at a frightening high.

Save the Children has developed a Child Sensitive Social Protection (CSSP) Project in the district. This is an attempt to address child poverty and depriva-tion stemming from household shock, stress, chro-nic poverty and insensitivity towards children. The project rests on the assumption that the household, despite its limitations, is the best place for a child to develop and thrive and that improved social protec-tion and better service delivery to the household, along with better sensitivity towards children, can play a key role in reducing child poverty.2

This paper is a background paper for the CSSP pro-ject. It aims to give a glimpse of the child poverty

situation in the district.3 The information is primarily drawn from a child poverty mapping exercise carried out in 87 villages spread across 20 panchayats (vil-lage councils) of the district. The mapping exercise was undertaken to identify vulnerable and deprived children as a part of the operationalisation of the project.4 Case studies are used to better illustrate the situation of children. The insights gained during the mapping have contributed to a comprehensive understanding of the complexities of child poverty and vulnerability in the district and provided Save the Children with a strong platform for programming. We hope that this paper will serve as a trigger for development actors to respond to the dire situation of child poverty in Dungarpur.

1. INTRODUCTION

7

The status of child and maternal health remains critical in Rajasthan and is often viewed as a major stumbling block for human development. Rajasthan is one

of seven Indian states that together make up for 70 per cent of all infant deaths in the country. Go-vernment data points towards a dismal situation for child mortality in Dungarpur district. The IMR

is 60.5 A survey undertaken by Save the Children in early 2011 of 20 panchayats, i.e. 87 villages, covering 7 371 families in Dungarpur and Bicchiwara blocks, suggests that the actual child mortality rate in the district is shocking. During the last two years as many as 486 children6

found to have died, with the majority of deaths occurring within one year of birth. Most children died from preventable diseases such as recurring fever and diarrhea.7

An interplay of factors are responsible for perpetu-ating child mortality in the district. Poor maternal health, negligence in pre- and antenatal care, faulty breast feeding practices, a lack of awareness about immunization, poor hygiene practices, delays in seeking appropriate medical care etc. have led to multiple health problems for children at an early age. The absence of appropriate health care support and facilities is an underlying problem.8

The socio-cultural fabric of Dungarpur also po-ses a challenge in addressing child mortality and

frequently resorts to, harmful traditional treatments.

problem is the ‘Bhopa’ (faith healer). It is a common belief that diseases, especially among children, are caused by ‘Dakans’ (women who possess superna-tural powers) and that only the ‘Bhopa’ has the apt

remedy for such ailments. Normally, the treatment cycle of any health event starts with seeing a ‘Bhopa’, followed by experimenting with a ‘Bengali’ Doctor.9 If both of these fail, a government or private doctor may be consulted. In a study of 30 families it was found that while all families were consulting the ‘Bhopa’, only 35 per cent were making regular use of hospitals or paramedics. The extensive faith in the ‘Bhopa’ is perpetuated by the poor status of health care in the district.

2. CHILD SURVIVAL AND HEALTH

88

Prabhu was just four months old when he passed away, suffering from severe malnourishment. He had been frail ever since he was born and showed early symptoms of malnourishment with a severely

‘Bhopa’ and was branded by a hot iron rod (‘dam lagana’) to chase away the evil spirit from his body. As this did not help, he was then taken to a Bengali Doctor in a nearby village according to whom breastfeeding was the cause for the enlarged stomach. He referred him to a doctor in Dungarpur town. Prabhu was

given the medicines prescribed by the doctor, but did not show any signs of improvement. Mean while, he was being taken to the ‘Bhopa’ for treatment with the hot iron rod. A local doctor referred him to the government hospital in Udaipur, but the parents delayed taking him to Udaipur as they felt that they could not afford this. Finally, in Udaipur the doctors said he should be taken to Ahmedabad. The family could not afford this either, so Prabhu remained in the village, occasionally being treated by the ‘Bhopa’, until he died.

DYING OF NEGLECT

99

Malnourishment is widespread in Dungar-pur and there are almost daily articles in the main local papers on the topic. According to the ‘Patrika’10, there are

58 649 malnourished children in the district; this number is based on a survey undertaken by the Integrated Child and Development Services (ICDS) department at the beginning of 2011.11 Other esti-mates suggest that every third child in Dungarpur is malnourished.12 Save the Children found at least 108 malnourished children in the 20 surveyed pan-

on the basis of easily noticeable symptoms.13 Villa-gers do not really see malnutrition as a problem as there are so many children in the community with various symptoms of malnourishment. The poor health seeking behaviour of the community, the lack of availability of nutritional food, especially at time of stress and shock in the family, combined with inadequate nutritional knowledge and prevailing misconceptions, has led to the dire situation of malnourishment in the area. The ICDS programme has not been able to implement an effective strategy to address the problem of malnutrition.14

In an effort to better understand the eating patterns of children, 40 households were tracked for three continuous days by Save the Children. It was found that children in these families usually have two me-als a day that mainly consists of ‘chapati’ and may be accompanied with either lentils or vegetables.

Among 97 children, only 26 were reported to have had lentils or vegetables in their meals on a dai-ly basis, which means that 71 children were only eating ‘chapati’ some days. It is generally observed that there is hardly any difference in the diet of an adult and a child. The exercise also revealed that, out of the 97 children surveyed, only one child had the privilege of having milk between meals. Many

3. CHILD NUTRITION

children under one year of age were not breastfed by their mothers.

Several studies have found that breastfeeding prac-tices are based on misconceptions, resulting in distorted practices such as colostrum not being given to the child.15 This means that the tribal child starts with a weak foundation of nutrition, which is compounded by limited nutritional intake as solid food intake starts. Although it is not easy to noti-ce, nutrition has an element of gender inequality. Commonly, the eating order starts with adult males and boys, then the girls and lastly, the mother. Girls are also less likely to be given milk or fruits (which are rare in any case).16 17

1010

Itli is two and a half years old and has been weak since birth. When her condition started to deteriorate, her parents began visiting the ‘Bhopa’ for treatment. This carried on for about a year. As there were no signs of improvement they took Itli to a local deity. For the want of proper care and treatment, Itli slipped into severe malnourishment. She is now in a state of shock and is unable to move her body.

THE REALITY OF MALNUTRITION

Rajkumari is three years old and weighs six kilograms. Her mother does not feel that her child has a severe problem. She has never been taken to an ICDS centre or for medical consultation.

11

With an overall literacy rate of 60.78 per cent in 2011, Dungar-pur remains at the bottom of the district ranking, not only in

Rajasthan18 but also in the country as a whole.19

Government data suggests that the net enrolment ratio in Dungarpur is 88.04 per cent, against a sta-

20 In terms of retention in

is 85 per cent for Dungarpur (and 90.08 for the state). Nevertheless, there is reason to question

accurate. Data collected by Save the Children from 20 panchayats in the district reveals that at least 1022 children aged 6 to 14 are out of school; which translates as about 10 per cent of the school-going age group. However, this information is based on a very rapid hamlet survey in which information was collected from a group of people rather than the households themselves. A household level survey would bring up the numbers substantially. Surpri-singly, the data gathered suggests that girls may now almost outnumber boys in school attendance, as there are 507 girls (of school-going age) who have dropped out, as compared to 515 boys, in

1 Most important reason 2 3 4 5 6 Least important

reason

Low household income

Family breakdown (i.e. one parent leaves)

The child is en-gaged in seasonal labour and does not want to re-turn to school

Education is costly Bullying by other children

The child has no proper uniform

Large family- few earners

Requirement for support in domestic work

The distance to school (especially after class 5)

The child has no friends to go to school with (especially after class 5)

One parent is alcoholic

The child does not learn much in school

The main earner dies/becomes disabled or seriously ill

Child is frequently ill

Crop failure (due to a very poor monsoon)

Education is not useful

Employment  Guarantee  Scheme  site  in  Atri  village,  Dungarpur

these 20 panchayats. This warrants further study, but our preliminary understanding of this is that more boys than girls migrate as boys can fetch more income in the labour market (see the section ‘Child labour’). Moreover, the substantial effort by the government in bringing girls to school is likely

The reason for the poor retention rate in Dun-garpur schools stems from an interplay of factors originating in household economics and crises, pa-rental perceptions about schooling, the availability and glamorization of child labour, and the poor quality of education. Field investigations suggest that household poverty, stress and shock emerge as the most pertinent factors for leaving school. Although the poor quality of education is a cross-cutting and reinforcing factor, it does not come out as the key reason for children leaving school. Save the Children

-us studies and interactions as reasons for leaving school and subsequently undertook a few ranking exercises in a village to explore how villagers view the reasons. The outcome of the ranking exercise with a group of women is presented below.

3. CHILD EDUCATION

1212

The ranking exercise clearly illustrated that po-verty of the household, which may be exacerbated by a shock, such as the death or serious illness of the main breadwinner, are crucial factors for children leaving school. The circumstances leading to a break down of the household by one parent leaving, or some temporary domestic requirement, also induce children to drop out of school. A ranking of the same factors with a men’s group resulted in

shock factors in the household result in a major loss of education, has been substantiated time and again over the last one and a half years through interac-tions with parents, children and service providers.

Once children are ready for secondary school, fac-tors such as ‘education not being useful’, ‘children do not learn much in school’, ‘the distance to school’

out. This is, however, also coupled with economic reasons or interests of the parents as children of this age can earn money through migration, or even local work. Once a child has left school for a few months, there are very minimal chances of their return.

The case studies below of children who have drop-ped out of school will contextualize the household events leading to this.

A FATHER’S POOR HEALTH

A FATHER’S POOR HEALTH

Kuku, Sunita and their younger brother, Pankesh, were taken out of school once their father’s health started to deteriorate due to tuber-culosis. The girls have joined their mother as construction workers in Gujarat. Pankesh stays at home to look after his father, a younger sis-ter and also to manage household chores. The father says, ‘my children are not able to get an education due to my poor health condition and I feel bad about it.’

Arti’s father died of tuberculosis and the responsibility of the entire family fell upon Arti’s mother, Haju. However, Haju abandoned her children soon after her husband’s death. Arti (10 years old) and her brother Kamal (6 years old) were left alone. The grandparents started looking after the children.

Arti and her grandmother are not keeping well. They do not have money to consult a doctor. Arti has become very weak due to inadequate food and a lack of medication. Ultimately, she had to leave school. Kamal says, ‘if Arti is not taken to the doctor she will also die, like my father.’

As long as Arti was going to school she was getting Rs. 1100 annually under the ‘Apki Beti Yojna’ program-me, but this has now been stopped as she dropped out of school. Her grandfather receives an old age pension

WHEN THE FATHER DIES AND THE MOTHER LEAVES

but this amount is not enough for managing the family. He also tries to work at the NREGS (National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme) site to at least get some money to be able to buy food for the household, but due to his age he cannot work long hours.

13

As indicated in the previous section, child labour is intrinsically linked to children leaving school. In the 20 panchayats stu-died it was found that at least as many as

1887 children aged 6 to 18 are working instead of attending school. The most common work is

more prominently than boys. Girls are more of-ten engaged in sibling care and work around the

with cattle grazing. It may be noted that the 1089 children engaged in domestic labour do not attend school, which means that children are required, or are at least perceived to be required, to stay at home to manage domestic tasks. Migratory work is the second most common type of work, and here boys clearly outnumber girls. Boys can fetch a higher income than girls while migrating. This is why there is a tendency to send more girls than boys for low-paid labour around the village and in the district centre. Since availability of work as well

Table  2:  Child  labour  in  20  panchayats  of  Dungarpur  district  

Labour type Dungarpur Bicchiwara Sub Total Total

Domestic: agriculture, cattle grazing, sibling care

Girls 563 102 665 1089

Boys 342 82 424

Local wage: in and around the village and Dungarpur, mostly construction work

Girls 105 13 118 167

Boys 41 8 49

Migration: stay away for work, mostly to the state of Gujarat

Girls 113 76 188 631

Boys 241 201 426

Total 1887

5. CHILD LABOUR

as payment is limited locally, local wage work is the least prevalent form of child labour.

It is well known that Dungarpur generally has a high rate of children engaged in paid, as well as unpaid, labour. This is triggered by household poverty, shock and stress, as explained earlier, and also a lifestyle and regular practice that has evolved in the area

the meagre land areas that they own. Child labour is further coupled with a low level of appreciation and expectation of the educational system. Proximity to the economically progressive Gujarat, where work is easily available, also contributes to mass-scale, seasonal migration. Estimates of migration from Dungarpur to other states are as high as 60 per cent of the total population.21 Children, especially boys in their early teens, become inculcated to the migration pattern at an early stage. Initially, many

-

14

ring school holidays where exploitation and abuse of children has been noted in national as well as international media.22 Later, children join relatives working on construction sites, at brick kilns or as agricultural labourers. Some work in teashops or small hotels in Gujarat or even Mumbai. Of late, the-re are also reports of children being involved in the employment guarantee scheme of the district itself.

In addition to the factors discussed above as reasons for the extensive number of children engaged in la-bour, it is important to stress that there are children

Mani is a 13-year-old girl. She dropped out of school two years ago, while she was in class 5, due to her mother’s untimely death. Her father was not very keen to make an effort to earn a living for the family so Mani had to leave school to shoulder this responsibility. At this tender age, Mani found

DROPPING OUT OF SCHOOL

who are themselves keen to migrate for labour due to a glamourisation of the lifestyle of adolescent male migrants in particular.23 Save the Children’s

parent-child relationship and lack of parenting skills hampers the parents from exerting any constructive

child who wants to be in school to reason with the parent(s) who have decided to take the child out of school.

herself taking care of her father, two sisters and a brother. It is only when she earns some money that food is cooked for everyone. Her father and

eat whatever is left.

15

Mohan is a boy of 15 years of age. Mohan’s father works at the NREGS sites and is also engaged in agriculture. Mohan dropped out from school in class 8 as other children who migrate for work

his friends did and earn so that he could also afford a mobile and nice clothes. Everyone in the family tried to convince him to not leave school, but he left for Gujarat with his friends and started to work as a labourer at a construction site. He left the site after 15 days due to strenuous working conditions. He then joined his other friends working in a small

roadside restaurant. Mohan got badly burnt while working and also fractured one arm. The employer took him to the hospital and bore all the expenses but his whole body got badly injured and it will take years for him to recover completely. Three months later, Mohan returned home. He says, ‘I am afraid that I will never be able to work again’.

16

In addition to the various dimensions of child poverty and vulnerability discussed above, the-

-garpur who are vulnerable to multiple forms

of deprivation, i.e. orphans and disabled children. They are at a high risk of receiving inadequate nutrition, health care and education along with facing various social and emotional challenges.

6.1 ORPHANS24

In the 20 panchayats studied by Save the Children, 25,

while 706 children can be categorized as single orphans. The key reasons for orphanhood lie in parental ill health and a lack of appropriate medical care, resulting in many parents dying while their children are still young. If a father dies, it is very common, and also socially acceptable, that a mot-her (of marriageable age) abandons her children and remarries (or starts co-habiting with) a man in another village. While gender analysts claim that the mother often leaves her children due to pressure from in-laws who want to ensure full control of

6. SPECIFIC GROUPS OF VULNERABLE

CHILDREN

property and therefore push her away26, others suggest that tribal familial and marital ties are ge-

change. Whatever are the actual reasons, children are left to suffer. While some orphaned children are properly nurtured and cared for by relatives, many face neglect and exploitation.

In Dungarpur, most of the orphaned children end up living with grandparents or close relatives. Quite a few orphans do however end up as child-headed households, i.e. they have to manage on their own because none of the relatives are interested to shoulder the responsibility or, in some cases, there are no relatives to take up the caregiver role. We found as many as 60 child-headed households in 20 panchayats.

The death of one parent, or marital breakdown, has resulted in many children living in a single pa-rent household, or sometimes with a stepfather or stepmother. The loss or absence of one biological parent often leads to children being taken out of school to carry out various domestic chores or to start working for an income.

17

BECOMING AN ORPHAN

Jagdish is 14 years old and lost both his parents and a sister last year. Jagdish’s father used to work in Mumbai while his mother was occasionally working under the employment guarantee scheme in the village. The family was doing well by local standards and even managed to build a new house with the income received from Mumbai. Jagdish and his sib-lings were studying in the village school. One day his father returned to the village with fever. The family consulted a local chemist and his father bought some medicines. He died 15 days after this. Within a year Jagdish also lost his mother. She had shown no signs of illness. She was found dead in the mor-ning, sitting near the front door of their house. The sudden death of their mother seriously impacted on Jagdish and his sister. Their grandmother told that

his sister wept constantly for three days and, on the third day, she suddenly fainted while walking and died. She was only 15 years old. Jagdish became seriously traumatized and dropped out of school.

Jagdish’s grandmother receives a widow’s pen-sion - this is the only source of regular income for the family. Neither Jagdish nor his grandmother are living in their house as they are scared and feel that it has become haunted. The grandmother is living with her nephew and in return she gives the pension to him. Jagdish has no place to live and keeps on moving from one relative to another. He is severely traumatized and is not able to work. His grandmother says that she is too old to take care of him now and she is worried about his well-being.

1818

A CHILD-HEADED HOUSEHOLD

Ramesh, 12 years old, and Prakash, 10 years old, are two brothers living on their own in the village of Bhaga Talab. They lost their father 10 years back and their mother left them soon after that for another man. The children do not know the reason for their father’s death; both of them were too young to even remember the faces of their parents. Initially, the grandmother used to take care of the children

but she is now living with her other son, as she is growing old. Ramesh dropped out of school in class 6 to take care of the land. He is also engaged in odd jobs in the village – in return, he gets food or some

is now planning to migrate to Gujarat with other children of the village. His younger brother, Prakash, is studying in class 3.

19

Types Of Disability Girls Boys Total

Orthopedic impairment 100 135 235

Cognitive/Intellectual impairment 38 57 95

Visual impairment 27 49 76

Speech impairment 32 30 62

Hearing and speech impairment 20 19 39

Hearing impairment 12 17 29

Accidental disability 3 3 6

Orthopedic and visual Impairment 2 0 2

Orthopedic and hearing impairment 1 0 1

Hearing and visual impairment 1 0 1

Others 1 2 3

Grand Total 237 312 549

Table  3:  Disabled  children  in  20  panchayats  of  Dungarpur  district  

6.2 CHILDREN WITH A DISABILITY

Children with a disability live in a social environ-ment where they constantly encounter negative attitudes and marginalization. There are as many

panchayats surveyed. The breakup of the disabilities of the 549 children is detailed below.

Disabled children face social stigma and often neg-lect by parents as well as the community at large. Interactions with the children suggest that children drop out of school due to the neglect by teachers in school and the lack of appropriate facilities for disabled children within the school premises.

20

LIVING WITH DISABILITY

Priyanka, eight years old, is said to have fallen ill from the time she was born. She can neither speak nor stand. Her parents have consulted local quacks, but

at a hospital. As other family members are out for

work most of the day, Priyanka’s four year old sister has been given the responsibility to look after her.

21

As suggested earlier in this paper, there is a clear link between household stress and the deprivation of children. This is particularly evident when children

drop out of school and are brought into the labour market. Yet, it has also been noted that local per-ceptions and, at times, the limited understanding of parents of child development issues play a major role in promoting non-conducive decision-making about children’s lives. To better understand how an interplay of various factors, including the attitude of parents, jeopardizes children’s well being, a child sensitivity mapping exercise was undertaken with separate groups of children and parents.27

In-depth interaction with children brought forth the fact that parents have a tendency to make children feel that paying off family debt, earning a living for the family and taking care of younger siblings is as much an obligation of children as it is of the parents. Children shared that parents always prioritize mo-ney before studies. Regarding work, children said

but that children go to work when parents make a decision due to the family situation. Children re-vealed that work hampers their development due to poor conditions at the workplace, long working hours, the lack of proper sleep and food. Based on group discussions, it also appeared that, despite parents’ awareness of the poor working conditions and potential abuse of children, parents were quite ready to send their children to work.

There was a consensus among children on the issue of gender disparity. Especially girls told of several incidences of how a girl had to drop out while their brother continued in school in the case of some

7. INSENSITIVITY TOWARDS CHILDREN

family problem. Girls informed that parents do

education for girls. Gender disparity is also widely evident in the health of children. In the group dis-cussions, girls stressed that during illness girls are always taken to the ‘Bhopa’ for treatment whereas boys are taken to a doctor if there is a serious illness.

-cance of education and other development needs of their children, they are concurrently quick to dwell on reasons as to why they are not able to provide properly for their children. During the discussions, parents often shrug off their responsibility and hold their children accountable for not attending school. Broadly speaking, parents were found to have no inhibitions when it comes to putting their children to work instead of going to school and many parents were of the opinion that it is better that children learn a skill in order to earn a living rather than get an education, as education will eventually not bring in any money.

Experiences also point towards poor parent-child relationships in the community. A huge commu-nication gap between parents and children has been observed, especially when it comes to making decisions regarding children. Parents also agreed that they make decisions without consulting their children. This poor status of the parent-child rela-tionship has also resulted in the reverse situation becoming common, i.e. children leave their homes or run away with other children without informing their parents.

22

Department of Health, Dungarpur (2011) Health Statistics provided by the

Dubey, M. (2009) Study on Childhood Poverty and Vulnerability in Dungarpur, South Rajasthan

Department of Planning, Government of Rajasthan & Institute of Development Studies, Jaipur (2009) Dungarpur District Human Development Report 2009

Government of India, Population Census 2011

ICDS (2011) Survey to identify malnourished children. ICDS Dungarpur

Health Survey

Mitra, A. (2010) Scoping study on gender inequality in relation to the Child Sen-sitive Social Protection (CSSP) Project in Dungarpur

Oxford Policy Management (2010). Formative Research to Guide Strategic Com-munication Interventions for Children in the Cotton Growing Areas and Cotton Seed Producing States. Final Report

Rajasthan Patrika (2011) ‘Despite high investment – malnutrition still exists‘. November 28, 2011

Towari, S. (2010) Integrated Child Development Services Scheme: a qualitative study

WEBSITES:

ANNEX 1: REFERENCES

23

BACKGROUND

In order for Save the Children to constructive-ly address child poverty and vulnerability in the CSSP project, it became evident as the project was being prepared that a method had to be developed through which poor or vulnerable children could

28 Considering that

as it would give them an opportunity to learn about child poverty and also to locate children that the project would work with, the idea of ‘child vulne-rability and poverty mapping‘ emerged.

At an early stage, it was decided that the mapping had to focus on areas of child poverty or vulnera-bility that can be addressed through a CSSP lens. As the focus of CSSP in Dungarpur is to facilitate access to social assistance (cash or in-kind transfers) and to work with the development of health insurance as a means to cushion households from falling deeper into the poverty trap (as poor health leads to a loss

resources by expensive treatment), the mapping would need to focus on areas of child deprivation that the improved social protection of households can have a bearing on. Through various studies and

dropping out of school and engaging in child labour is intrinsically linked to household stress (economic, physical and social) and reinforced by parents’ lack of appreciation for education. It was envisaged that improved social protection of the household could also make investments in children’s nutrition and health possible, along with awareness generation and change in household based practices. Based on this broader understanding, 14 criteria were developed covering various groups of children and adults in

ANNEX 2: CHILD VULNERABILITY AND POVERTY MAPPING

which children are likely to be deprived or could potentially be deprived of education, adequate food and appropriate health care. Children already facing

criteria used can be found below.

METHODOLOGY

The mapping exercise covered a total of 87 villages in 20 panchayats across Dungarpur and Bicchiwara blocks. The CSSP staff was divided into teams to carry out the data collection. Group discussions were organized in several locations of a village with elected representatives, village leaders and generally knowledgeable and respected people. Each discus-

Sr. Criteria

1 Child mortality (children who died during last two years)

2 Malnourished children

3 Children chronically or frequently ill

4 Children who are not in school

5 Children engaged in work

6 Disabled children

7 Orphaned children

8 Child headed household

9 Disability of adults

10 Chronically ill/injured - adults

11 Single parent-widow

12 Single parent- widower

13 Single parent-abandoned

14 Pregnant women

2424

sion took around three to four hours. The team would locate all the households of a hamlet on a map and go through each household with the group to identify whether any of the listed criteria were applicable to adults or children in any of the house-holds. A door to door survey would have taken lots of time given the undulating terrain of Dungarpur and the scattered nature of the settlements. Moreo-ver, it was found that the group discussion yielded

considerations and views were brought up and it also gave the opportunity to clarify the purpose of the CSSP project to reputed villagers.

On the basis of the data collected, an analysis was made to understand panchayat, block and aggregate levels of vulnerability and poverty in the working area. This served a pivotal role in the planning of

the interventions required and will also be used to monitor changes.

As the basis of data collection was a small focus group discussion with a restricted number of people, it was felt that a cross-check was needed prior to presenting the data at various platforms. Hence, the

in the group discussions as having vulnerable or poor children. During this process, the team also came to know about further households and children who were not included in the initial mapping.

FINDINGS OF THE CHILD AND VUL-NERABILITY MAPPING

the 20 panchayats are presented in the table overleaf.

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Table  4:  Child  poverty  and  vulnerability  mapping  2011

Particular

Grand Total

Unit Dungarpur Block Bichhiwara Block Total

Ward Covered No. 123 107 230

Families Covered No. 4586 2785 7371

Vulnerable Children (0-18 years) 3138

G 1001 483 1484

B 1033 621 1654

Children (0-5 years) who died during the last 2 years 486G 104 131 235

B 116 135 251

Malnourished Children 108G 19 20 39

B 43 26 69

Chronically ill children 265G 46 58 104

B 84 77 161

Drop out Children 1022G 435 72 507

B 429 86 515

Child Labour (domestic) Domestic 1089G 563 102

B 342 82

Child Labour (Local) Local 167G 105 13

B 41 8

Child Labour (Migrates) Migration 631G 113 76

B 241 201

Disabled children 549G 108 128 236

B 184 129 313

Orphaned children 256G 72 33 105

B 111 40 151

Children living with others than parents 390G 118 86 204

B 117 69 186

Child-headed families 60G 9 0 9

B 29 22 51

Disabled parent 977M 414 204 618

F 245 114 359

Chronically ill/ injured parent 1098M 453 251 704

F 231 163 394

Pregnant women 884 F 526 358 884

Single parents

Widow

456

F 225 98

Widower M 71 34

Separated F/M 36 20

Vulnerable children (0-18 years) of single parents 763

G 207 83 290

B 342 131 473

2626

1. Dungarpur is the smallest district of Rajasthan. About 65 per cent of the total population of 1 388 906

2011). The main tribal group in the area is the Bhils. Overall human development remains one of the weakest in Rajasthan (GoR, 2009).

2. The project forms a part of a Save the Children South Asia initiative on Child Sensitive Social Pro-tection, which is based on three components: 1) im-proved access to social protection programmes; 2) enhanced child sensitivity from parents and various duty bearers; and 3) improved government policy and social protection programme framework for

3. Child poverty is increasingly understood as a mul-tidimensional concept that goes beyond the basic needs of children and includes the denial of a range of social rights, as laid out in the UNCRC. The CSSP programme is however primarily concerned with child poverty as a deprivation of the most basic needs – i.e. survival, health and education since these are aspects that can be fruitfully addressed through social protection interventions focused on children or their families.

4. See Annex 2 for the indicators used to undertake child poverty and vulnerability mapping

5. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (Gov-ernment of India, 2011)

6. This corresponds to about 3.8 per cent of the total child population under 5 in the investigated area.

7. of child mortality are grossly underreported. Data

child deaths (of children 0-5 years old) took place between January and August 2011.

ENDNOTES

8. The existing number of Pubic Health Centres (PHC) in the district is 36. Based on population norms there should be a total of 65 PHCs in Dungarpur (Department of Health Dungarpur, 2011).

9. A ‘Bengali Doctor’ is a private person offering medi-cal extension services in the villages. This person

10. The main daily newspaper in Rajasthan

11. ICDS , 2011

12. Rajasthan Patrika, 2011; based on data from the Health Department

13. The symptoms put forward by the team were dry scaly skin, hair that has lost its pigment, brittle and malformed nails and growth retardation.

14. The poor performance of the ICDS programme in Dungarpur has been described in a study un-

study by Save the Children also indicated multiple reasons for the ineffective functioning of the centre, including a general lack of motivation and interest of the Anganwadi (community-based) workers, a lack of the required skills in the workers and the poor physical environment of the centre. Growth monitoring is not carried out systematically, and the supply of nutrition is not regular. Outsourcing for preparation of supplementary nutrition and a hot cooked meal to Self Help Groups has not improved performance in terms of regularity of the food given to children as payments by the department are irregular. The Anganwadi workers are generally not keen on making the effort to refer children to the Malnutrition Treatment Centre in Dungarpur. They consider the procedures cumbersome and they are also uncertain about the effectiveness of the treatment.

27

15. See e.g. Dubey, 2009

16. ibid

17. See Mitra, 2010, for an overview of gender relations in the Dungarpur district

18. The literacy rate is 74.66 for men and 46.98 for women in Dungarpur, indicating that there is still a substantial gender gap to be closed. The literacy rate for Rajasthan is 67.1 per cent (Population Census, 2011)

19. Population Census 2011

20. ibid

21. Department of Planning, Government of Rajasthan & Institute of Development Studies, Jaipur 2009

22.

23. Oxford Policy Management, 2010

24. In Western countries, an orphan is normally known as a child who has lost both parents. As a response to the widespread AIDS pandemic in the mid-1990s, which left many children in a vulnerable situation even with one parent, the international develop-

‘single ‘ orphan means a child who has lost one par-ent and a ‘double ‘ orphan is a child who has lost both parents.html. The Government of Rajasthan has a caregiver programme for orphans, Palanhar Yojana, which is

Save the Children paper on Child Focused Social Protection in Dungarpur, 2012).

25. (0 to 18 yrs old) who has lost or been abandoned by both biological parents. A single orphan is a child (0-18) who has lost or been abandoned by one biological parent.

26. See e.g. Mitra , 2010

27. A total of 10 child-based Focus Group Discussions (FGDs), involving 60 children, and 10 adult-based FGDs, involving 63 parents, were carried out.

28. Child vulnerability in the CSSP context refers to a state of risk, i.e. children who are at a high risk of becoming deprived of various development needs. Child poverty refers to a situation in which children’s most basic needs are not being met.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Save the Children, Bal Raksha Bharat

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Save the Children, Bal Raksha Bharat

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www.savethechildren.in