Children - Terre des Hommes

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Literacy levels are also poor in the state; according to the
2001 Census, 61.03 per cent of the population are literate
which is significantly lower than the national average of 66
per cent. Within this figure, there are shockingly sharp gender
divides—76.46 per cent of the male population were found to
be literate, compared to a meagre 44.34 per cent of the female
population. The situation for SC and ST in the state is even
worse, with only 31.18 per cent of rural SC women and 25.22
per cent of rural ST women literate. 65
Status of Children
The total number of children 19 years and under in Rajasthan
in 2001 was 28,033,445 and the number of children aged
between 0 and 14 years was 22,543,231. 66 This means
that children constitute over 40 per cent of the state’s total
population.
Although the official number of children out of school is only
155,338, 67 the actual number is likely to be much higher than
this. According to the 2001 Census, the number of children
between 4 and 14 years working as child labour in the state
was 1,262,570, constituting 10 per cent of India’s entire child
labour force and placing Rajasthan behind only Uttar Pradesh
and Andhra Pradesh in terms of child labour numbers. The
NSSO painted an even more frightening picture in 2004-05,
suggesting that 3,488,000 children between 5 and14 years
(over one in five children in the state) are child labourers.
In stark contrast to this, despite the existence of 29 NCLP
schools across Rajasthan, only 14,234 working children have
been rehabilitated in the state through this programme. 68
Official figures on the number of children working in all
hazardous sectors are ridiculously low. There were reported to
be only 3,026 children employed in hazardous occupations in
Rajasthan in 1999. 69 This is also contradicted by the Census
data, which states that the number of children working in
mining and quarrying alone in 2001 was 4,296. 70
According to India’s only private survey of school education,
Pratham’s ASER 2008 survey, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh
were the only two states where the number of out-of-school
children did not decrease between 2007 and 2008. 71 Their
data indicates that 7.1 per cent of children between 5 and
14 years are out of school in the state, and that 37.6 per
cent of children between 0 and 5 years are not enrolled in an
anganwadi centre or pre-school. 72 Within Rajasthan, there are
also wide variations between districts. Notably, the mining
districts visited as part of this study—Jaisalmer, Jodhpur and
Barmer—all have large proportions of children aged between
5 and 14 years out of school; this is respectively 15 per cent,
12.1 per cent and 11.4 per cent. This therefore constitutes a
significant proportion of children available as labour pool in
these districts.
Rajasthan also continues to experience high drop-out rates,
with only 60 per cent of children who enrol in class I reaching
class VIII. The drop-out rates are worst in the geographically
difficult region (the desert area) and in the ST habited region
(the south). In many areas, supply constraints continue to
impede access to formal education for many children—
facilities are poor, teachers frequently absent, and in 11 out
of the 32 districts over 30 per cent of schools have only one
teacher. 73
Children at MLPC day care centre (Photo July 2009)
Child health outcomes in Rajasthan are also poor. Around 80
per cent of children between six and 35 months are anaemic and
44 per cent of children under 3 years of age are underweight.
65. Census of India, 2001.
66. Ibid.
67. Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 576, dated 21.10.08, State-wise Number of Out of School Children (6-14 years Age) in India (As on 31.03.2008).
68. Ministry of Labour, Rajasthan, www.rajlabour.nic.in/childlabour.doc.
69. Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 2691, dated 9.8.2000.
70. Census of India, 2001.
71. Pratham ASER 2008 survey, pp. 50.
72. Ibid, pp. 64.
73. Human Development Report Rajasthan 2008, Prepared for the Government of Rajasthan by the Institute of Development Studies, Jaipur.