POCSO Act<\/a><\/strong>, Juvenile Justice Act and Right to Education Act.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nGovernment Initiatives for Child Welfare<\/b><\/h2>\n
The Government of India has introduced several schemes to address children’s nutrition, education, development and protection.<\/span><\/p>\n\n- Mission Vatsalya:<\/b> Strengthens child protection services and provides support for children in difficult circumstances through institutional and non-institutional care, rehabilitation and other support mechanisms. The Child Helpline is also provided under the Mission.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Mission Saksham Anganwadi and POSHAN 2.0:<\/b> Focuses on improving the nutritional status of children below six years of age and strengthening early childhood care and education through Anganwadi services.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman (PM POSHAN): <\/b>Provides hot cooked meals to children in Balvatika and Classes I-VIII in government and government-aided schools, with the aim of improving nutrition and encouraging school attendance.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Samagra Shiksha:<\/b> Supports school education from pre-school to Class XII, with a focus on improving access, equity and the quality of education.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Challenges to Child Rights<\/b><\/h2>\n
Despite legal safeguards and welfare programmes, several challenges continue to affect children’s development and well-being.<\/span><\/p>\n\n- Malnutrition:<\/b> Undernutrition, stunting, wasting and anaemia affect children’s health and development.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Child labour:<\/b> Poverty and lack of access to quality education force some children into work, exposing them to exploitation.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Child marriage: <\/b>Early marriage affects children’s education, health and overall development, particularly among girls.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Child abuse and trafficking: <\/b>Children remain vulnerable to sexual abuse, exploitation, trafficking and violence.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Educational inequality:<\/b> Poverty, social barriers and inadequate school infrastructure affect access to quality education.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Digital risks:<\/b> Online abuse, cyberbullying, exploitation and exposure to harmful content create new challenges for child safety.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Way Forward<\/b><\/h2>\n\n- Strengthen implementation: <\/b>Ensure effective enforcement of child-protection laws and timely action against violations.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Improve nutrition and healthcare: <\/b>Strengthen Anganwadi services, school nutrition programmes and access to essential healthcare.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Ensure quality education:<\/b> Address school dropouts, improve learning outcomes and make education accessible to disadvantaged children.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Prevent exploitation: <\/b>Strengthen mechanisms to identify and rehabilitate children affected by child labour, trafficking and abuse.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Improve digital safety: <\/b>Promote digital literacy and strengthen safeguards against online exploitation and cyberbullying.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Encourage child participation:<\/b> Involve children in decisions affecting their education, safety and well-being, in accordance with their age and maturity.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
World Children’s Day 2026 will be observed on November 20 with the theme ‘My day. My rights. My future.’, highlighting UNICEF’s campaign for child rights and welfare.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":131713,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[786],"tags":[11308,11307,11306],"class_list":["post-131732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-general-studies","tag-childrens-day","tag-world-childrens-day","tag-world-childrens-day-2026","no-featured-image-padding"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131732"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131732\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":131738,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131732\/revisions\/131738"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}