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SOCIAL STATUS OF SCHOOL AGE CHILDREN
7 1 Introduction
11 IS important to have a hlgh soclal status ~n order to have a sense of soc~al well be~ng
and d~gnlty A hlgh soclal status for children entails them the nght to have opt~mum
nutntlon and health care, educat~on and freedom from abuse and explo~tat~on These
three aspects are linked wlth the ewnomlc status of a fam~ly, community and also the
country For obvlous reasons the soc~al status of chlldren in the develop~ng countnes 1s
far from satisfactory It IS also known that ~n many develop~ng countnes gender
d~scnm~natlon very much lowers the status of the g~rl ch~ld (Oduntan 1995) Although
extensive l~terature 1s available on the vanous Issues concemlng the g~rt chlld the
revlew In the current study focuses malnly on the health, educat~on and soc~al status
espec~ally of the school aged glri keeplng ~n vlew the spec~f~c objectives of the study
(Chapter 2)
7.2 Review of literature
7.2.1 Global Scenerio
la) Gender preference in having children
Many countnes all over the world hold sons In hrgh esteem Sons are needed to cany
on the famlly Ilneage, to perform rel~g~ous ntuals and to prov~de ewnornlc secunty for
their parents In old age ~n some of the countries lhke Paklstan Nepal Bangladesh
Korea and Syna, there 1s a strong preference for sons However. ~n many developed