A nation which wants to prosper has to
invest in its children. There has to be a commitment to
its children.
Article 39 of the Directive Principles of State Policy of
the Constitution of India directs that "The children
are given opportunities and facilities to develop in
healthy manner and in conditions of freedom and
dignity".
A convention on the Rights of the Child was held under
the auspices of the UN on 20 November 1989. It emphasized
the Rights of the Child – "the Right to life,
the highest attainable standard of health, nutrition, and
adequate standard of living". This convention was
ratified by India on 11 December 1992.
Child population in India in 1996 was 30.7 crores. In
1991 the number of children below 6 years of age was 15
crores. For every 100 boys there were 98 girls. Infant
mortality rate in India in 1992 was 79 deaths per 1000
live births as against 129 in 1971. Under 5 mortality
rate in 1992 was, however, as high as 124 deaths per 1000
live births. 103 countries have a lower infant mortality
rate of under 5 than India. This is inspite of the
various programmes of Child Development Services launched
by the Government since 1975. In fact the responsibility
for raising a healthy child lies primarily with the
parents. It is for the Governments to provide
infrastructure of health centres, easy and adequate
availability of nutritional foods and information about
how to raise a healthy child. In providing such an
infrastructure, the International Organisations and the
local Non Governmental Organisations (NGO’s) have a
meaningful role to play. Poverty is the main hurdle in
the way of progress in this area. J.K.Galbraith has
validly said that "In this world there is no
literate population that is poor and no illiterate
population that is other than poor". In the field of
literacy, India has a long way to go. Though the
enrolment figure in primary schools rose from 19.2
million in 1951 to 99.1 millions in 1991 but only 52% of
the enrolled primary school children reach grade V. This
is besides a large number which never get enrolled and
also besides a backlog of a high percentage of illiterate
adults. An enthusiastic Government programme of literacy
is trying to take care of this aspect.
For disseminating reliable information about how to raise
a healthy child, a laudable joint effort was launched by
UNICEF, WHO and UNESCO and they have come out with a book
"Facts for Life" on primary health care, which.
In 25 to 30 reading pages (total pages 98) has brought
out as the most authoritative expression, in plain
language of today’s scientific consensus of
practical, low cost, family based ways of protecting
children’s lives and health. They have placed this
book as a ‘Challenge to all communicators of all
kinds………voluntary
organisations…….who can help to make its
contents part of every family’s basic stock of child
care knowledge".
This challenge is taken up by the Nature Cure and Yoga
Health Centre of the Servants of the People Society
(Delhi Branch) was founded by Lala Lajpat Rai and
inaugurated by Gandhiji in 1921. For raising a healthy
child pre-conceptional care is of great importance and so
are certain periods of pregnancy. Both of these subjects
have been dealt with in certain depth in this book. While
in most cases some outline has been provided by the
"Facts for Life", perhaps the details were left
to be provided by projects like this. Some body ailments
of children and questions relating to hygiene have also
been dealt with in some details so as to whet the
appetite of the readers. The important question relating
to breast feeding has been dealt with by providing
details of how to supplement the breast milk, improve
feeding postures, frequency of feeding and breast care.
This is followed by details of feeding solid foods,
feeding bottles with the child and nutrition tips. At the
end, question of the intelligence growth of the child has
been referred to and various steps suggested for
increasing his intelligence growth and intelligence
growth and intelligence quotient.
This is, however, preceded by a chapter on growth not
only in physical terms of weight and height but also of
emotional growth, methods of building confidence and
self-respect in the child and ways in which good manners
could be learnt. These details are likely to increase the
capability of the parents to discharge their
responsibility for raising a healthy child more
effectively.
In compiling of this book, one problem that cropped up
was about the pronoun to be used for the child. This
problem was solved by reference to the General Clauses
Act, which defines "he" as "he includes
she". The use of "he" for the child is
quite valid.
No private gain is sought from this book project. All
savings, if any, would go to the society for promoting
nature cure. Please forgive the shortcomings and oblige
by sending in suggestions for improvement. Gratitude is
expressed to UNICEF, WHO and UNESCO for permitting the
use of the material of their book ‘Facts for
life". Gratitude is also expressed to all those who
helped in this project.
Yours in service.
A.P. Dewan
Available at:
The Nature Cure and Yoga Health Centre,
Servants of the People Society,
Lajpat Bhawan, Near Vikram Hotel,
New Delhi- 110024
Rs. 30/- (Rupees Thirty)
This site would be best viewed on a Netscape 4.0 Gold or above and Microsoft IE 4.0 or above with screen settings of 800 x 600 and true colors option checked.
