India Trends 

The Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India 2018: data on children in institutions in India:

• India’s total population as on March 2022 – 1405 million or 1.4 billion.
• India has been ranked at 120th position in the Sustainable Development Report 2021 or Sustainable Development Index 2021. In this Index, countries are ranked by a score out of 100. India has a score of 60.07. Last year India’s rank was 117. The Index measures the country’s total progress towards achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Finland is ranked number one, followed by Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Belgium. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals were adopted by the UN General Assembly in September 2015 as a part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
• The enrolment rate of 6-14 year-olds in India is one of the lowest among OECD and partner countries with available data. (90.1 %, rank 42/43 , 2020)
• UNICEF’s State of the World’s Children Report 2016 pegs the number of orphaned and abandoned children in India at 30 million.As per the Ministry of Women and Children Development, Government of India, the number in 2018 was 3,70,277
• As per the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) study in 2021, there were 6265 Child Care Institutions in India. This number has come down further, to 6000. Source: Child Protection Service (CPS)
• State Governments across the country rose to the aftermath of the Covid-19 second wave, issued Government Orders (GO), guidelines, and notifications, formulated task forces and appointed nodal officers. They announced schemes and measures to support children, and families those are affected by and during Covid. The intent and effort was to prevent children from separation and permanently reintegrate children with families, family-based alternative care options (priority to kinship care) such that they do not then have to return to the Child Care Institutions.
• Covid-19 has impacted children in diverse ways: migration, familial crisis, income poverty and isolation from friends and classmates. The NCPCR has shared with the Supreme Court that a total of 1,47,492 children since April 1, 2020, have lost either their mother or father or both parents due to COVID-19 and other reasons. The figures are based on data uploaded by States and Union Territories on its 'Baal Swaraj Portal-COVID Care' up to January 11, 2022.
• An analysis of Union budgets shows the share for children came down from 4.64% in 2013-14 to 2.35% in 2022-23, a reduction of 0.11% from the previous year. The sectoral share for child protection is 0.04%, a minimal increase of 0.01% from the previous year.