indian council of medical research - Pondicherry University DSpace ...

Apart from the health and educational problems school age children also have to face
social problems. The social context of a school child here refers to the home milieu.
The social life of children first begins at home. The diet that they receive, the care and
attention they get when they fall sick, the importance given to their education and their
daily activities, reflect their status in the first society they come into contact with, namely
their own home environment. Gender discrimination prevalent in some parts of the
world and also in some parts of lndia adds to the problems of school age children. The
gender discrimination could result in low priority given to a girl in all spheres of life such
as health, nutrition, education and overall importance both in the house and outside it.
She is likely to be considered an economic and social burden, very often neglected
and exploited. In order to bring world wide focus on the plight of the girl child, the year
1990 was declared as the Year Of The Girl Child" by the South Asian Association for
Regional Cooperation -SAARC (Taneja,l990). In this connection, a National
conference on the girl child was also held in lndia with the aim of highlighting the
problems faced by the gill child who was ident~fied as be~ng below the age of 20 years
(Mukhe jee,l991).
It is thus seen that school aye children and especially the girl child constitute a
formidable and challenging group deserving attention by both health care providers
and educationists. To ensure optimum health, education and social status for school
age children, their needs have to be fully understood. The studies that have been done
in the past on some of the health, education and social needs of the school age
children, and particularly the girl child in India, have addressed only specific issues on
an epidemiological approach and have not been comprehensive (Ghosh,1986;