India has largest adolescent population in the world

Releasing the UNICEF's flagship `The State of the World's Children' report at the Raj Bhavan here, Patnaik said, the country's adolescents constituted 20 per cent of the world's 1.2 billion adolescents.

Stating nine out of ten among the 1.2 billion adolescents live in the developing world, the governor said, Assam was home to an estimated 6.5 million adolescents, comprising 21.3 per cent of the state's population.

"In this `youthful, human resource' lies the promise and potential of becoming a healthy, strong and egalitarian society. This, however, comes with the onerous responsibility on the part of the state and civil society actors, including parents and guardians, to nurture and harness the energy and potential of these adolescents", he pointed out.

Being aware of the needs to meet the challenges of adolescents", the governor said, India had put in place the NRHM, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan Mission, integrated Child Development Scheme, Integrated Child Development Scheme, Total Sanitation Programme and National AIDS Control Programme.

In Assam, a Commission for protection of Child Rights, the Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009 and Integrated Child Development Scheme were significant, he added