Children - Terre des Hommes

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Human Development Index (HDI): Composite statistic used
as an index to rank countries by level of ‘human development’
combining three dimensions of health, literacy and standard
of living.
Infant Mortality Rate (IMR): Number of newborns dying
under a year of age divided by the number of live births during
the year times 1,000.
Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS): The scheme
was launched with the primary objective of improving the
nutritional and health status of children in the age group 0–6
years.
Jansankhya Sthirata Kosh: Or the National Population
Stabilisation Fund, under the Ministry of Family Health and
Welfare, Government of India, the fund aims to promote and
undertake activities aimed at achieving population stabilisation
at a level consistent with the needs of sustainable economic
growth, social development and environment protection, by
2045.
Jowar: Or sorghum, is the major staple food grain crop in
many parts of India and is cultivated mostly under rain-fed
conditions.
Kaccha: Refers to temporary or not so strong structures.
Kharif: A crop that is the autumn harvest. It is also known
as summer or monsoon crop in India and is sown in the
beginning of first rains in July.
Lakh: Unit in Indian numbering [10 lakh (1,000,000)=1
million].
Lokayukta: Helps people bring corruption to the fore mainly
amongst the politicians and high ranking officers in the
government service.
Mahua: Or Madhuca longifoila is an Indian tropical tree of
great importance in the life of adivasis. Different parts of the
tree have different uses — as food, for medicine and for the
preparation of an alcoholic drink.
Main workers: Those workers who had worked for the major
part of the reference period (i.e. 6 months or more).
Mandal: Mandal, taluk or tehsil is an administrative level in
India below states and districts.
Maoists: Also known as Naxals are an extremist group
operating in different states in the country.
Marginal workers: Those workers who had not worked for the
major part of the reference period (i.e. less than 6 months).
Mid-day meal: Popular name for school meal programme
in India. It involves provision of lunch free of cost to school
children on all working days. The key objectives of the
programme are: protecting children from classroom hunger,
increasing school enrolment and attendance, improved
socialisation among children belonging to all castes, addressing
malnutrition, and social empowerment through provision of
employment to women.
Millennium Development Goal (MDG): These are eight
international development goals that all 192 United Nations
member states and at least 23 international organisations have
agreed to achieve by the year 2015. They include reducing
extreme poverty, reducing child mortality rates, fighting
disease epidemics such as AIDS, and developing a global
partnership for development.
Mini-ratna: The Government of India seeks to make public
sector more efficient and competitive by granting enhanced
autonomy and delegation of power to make them a consistently
profit-making units. By attaining the mini-ratna status, a
public sector unit will have certain amount of autonomy
with regard to capital expenditure, establishing joint venture
companies, entering into Transfer of Technology agreements
and implementation of schemes relating to human resources
management.
National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO): National
organisation that comes under the Ministry of Health and
Family Welfare, Government of India, and is concerned with
the prevention, care and support on the issue of HIV/AIDS
in India.
National Child Labour Project (NCLP): Scheme under the
Ministry of Labour and Employment, Government of India
that envisages running of special schools for child labour
withdrawn from work.
National Family Health Survey (NFHS): A large-scale,
multi-round survey conducted in a representative sample of
households throughout India. The survey provides state and
national information on fertility, infant and child mortality,
the practice of family planning, maternal and child health,
reproductive health, nutrition, anaemia, utilisation and quality
of health and family planning services.
National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005
(NREGA): Renamed as the Mahatma Gandhi National
Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 it aims at enhancing
the livelihood security of people in rural areas by guaranteeing
100 days of wage employment in a financial year to a rural
household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled
manual work.
National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO): Organisation
in the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation
of the Government of India that conducts a nationwide, largescale,
continuous survey operation in the form of successive
rounds.
Other Backward Castes (OBC): In the Indian Constitution,
OBCs are described as ‘socially and educationally backward
classes’, and the government is enjoined to ensure their social