Karnataka’s four districts, including Gulbarga and Raichur, are among 100 backward districts of the country where children are at a high risk of losing parental care.
They also get exposed to difficult circumstances due to various socio-economic reasons, including spread of HIV/AIDS.
This was noted by an international non-government and non-profit organisation, SOS Children’s Villages, in its latest report on situational analysis of child vulnerability in India.
The other two districts in the State are Bidar and Koppal.
The situation is more serious in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh where children face difficulties due to lack of parental care in as many as 13 districts, including Guntur, Nizamabad, Anantpur, Mahbubnagar, Medak, Adilabad and Kurnool.
Other districts in Andhra Pradesh included in the list of 100 child vulnerable districts are Khammam, Nalgonda, Prakasham, Warrangal, Vizianagaram and Vishakhapatnam. The report indicated that apart from spread of HIV/AIDS in these districts, social unrest is another reason making children vulnerable in the state.
According to the report, the total estimated vulnerable children in India, based on 2001 Census, were about 11,83,99,666, which was 27 per cent of the total child population below 18 years of age in the country.
“This means more than a quarter of our children live in extremely vulnerable situations and are facing the risk of losing their parental care and support,” the report underlined. Out of the 100 child vulnerable districts in the country, the NGO found 62 districts fall in the poverty belt of the country in Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and West Bengal.
Poorest districts
Bihar has the maximum number of poorest districts (30) followed by Jharkhand (17), West Bengal (8) and Orissa (7).
The study team noted that the estimation of vulnerable children had not been done in India and the existing literature on their size and magnitude was “highly limited”.
SOS Children’s Village was founded by Hermann Gmeiner in 1949 in Austria.
The non-profit charity organisation, which is active in 132 countries, is committed to helping children who has lost their homes and their families.
