Children, The Family and Health: What it Takes to Give Children Long Life
The Singapore Workshop: The silent crisis
We are here to discuss the biggest problem mankind is facing.
“There are no orphans in India,” wrote Jawahar Lal Nehru, “because the young are the children of mother earth.” Perhaps, but then she can be a hard and ignorant mother, oblivious of the Wordsworthain truth “The child is the father of man”.
Health of children below the age of 10 in India is in a pitiable condition and this is disrupting the basic social fiber. We often do not realize it, but there is a growing evidence that the quality of a child’s experience in the first two years of his life has a long lasting effect on the development of the brain. This includes care as well as health and nutrition. By the age of six, when the child is ready to go to the school , most of the neural connections are already made. Thus, the child’s ability to prosper in the education system has to an extent already been determined by this time. These are the formative years of the children.
The mechanism of blood, brain and bones are formed in this period. All the bs are vital for the child’s welfare. Therefore it is but obvious that given this importance of the early years, any meaningful conception of basic education has to include programmes promoting early childhood care. There is consensus that childcare and basic education is inseparable. Children can not be well educated without being cared for. Thus, never again can the early years be excluded from the world’s sense of what is meant by education.
Only looking after children in the early years will not pay dividends in educational and social terms. It is for the schools to change in order to better serve the children in their developmental needs. The need for inter-sector links between education and health or nutrition, for example, or the advantages of child centered teaching methods could usefully be put into practice in schools.
It is quite horrifying to hear that malnutrition and lack of hygiene account for 90% of children’s diseases. These factors account for 60% of infant’s deaths and 40% of mental and physical problems. It is frightening to learn that only 20% of the children below 10 in India have a fair chance of leading a healthy life. Yet, most of us are unaware of this fact which is making our society hollow. There is no dearth of media coverage on nuclear proliferation, floods and droughts. But, malnutrition which is deadlier than all of them put together, does not get the attention it deserves. Awareness of this virulent disease is at its lowest ebb, and this makes the role of the educational institutes most prominent in the care of child and health.
Malnutrition and lack of hygiene are the cause as well as effect of poverty. Even 50 years after independence, 30% children do not have access to potable water in India. India could not have started on a clean slate on 15th August 1947, but we were to begin a new chapter, befitting the civilization ideals of our 5000 years of recorded past. And to add to that, the sad part is, this percentage is increasing. People must be made aware that more good can be brought to society in general, and families in particular by removing deficiencies of iron and iodine than all the much hyped factors put together. Adequate sanitation is the foundation of development, which is unfortunately lacking and must be emphasized upon by the educational institutions, for to deny people basic sanitation is not just inhumane. It also kicks the first step out from the country’s ladder of development.
It has been said:
The day will come
When nations will be judged
Not by their military or economic strength
Nor by the splendor of their capital
Cities and public buildings,
But by the well being of the people:
By the levels of health, nutrition and education;
And by the protection that is afforded to the
Growing minds and bodies of the children.
I hope this workshop will be a contribution
Towards that day.
Last Modified: November 29, 2002