The NITI Aayog and UNICEF is going to develop India’s first report on ‘State of India’s Children: Status and Trends in Multidimensional Child Development’.
The NITI Aayog and UNICEF India signed a Statement of Intent (SoI) on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with a focus on children.
Reiterating a mutual commitment towards realizing the rights of children in India, the SoI seeks to formalize a framework of cooperation to launch the first report on the ‘State of India’s Children: Status and Trends in Multidimensional Child Development’.
The SoI was signed by NITI Aayog nodal officer-SDGs Sanyukta Samaddar and UNICEF India chief of social policy Hyun Hee Ban on Thursday.
NITI Aayog vice chairman Dr Rajiv Kumar and CEO Amitabh Kant, and UNICEF India officer-in-charge deputy representative, Arjan de Wagt were also present on the ocassion.
To achieve the child development priorities under the SDGs, UNICEF India and NITI Aayog are developing a comprehensive measure to understand the multi dimensional attainments and deprivations among children across health and nutrition, education, water and sanitation, household living standards and protective environment, with the aim of analyzing the status of children around critical child related SDGs to establish recent trends.
This effort will contribute to the realization of India’s commitments on the 2030 Agenda and provide a set of policy recommendations for concerted action in terms of accelerating progress towards the SDGs to ‘leave no child behind’ and achieving their holistic development, the official note said.
In his address, NITI Aayog vice chairman Dr Rajiv Kumar said this child-focused SDG initiative builds on our effort of monitoring progress through the SDG India Index and Dashboard, which continues to be a unique data-driven initiative for triggering policy action.
This new initiative with UNICEF is built on the ethos of SDGattainments for children and ensuring that no child is left behind, he said.
Articulating the way forward, UNICEF India chief of social policy Hyun Hee Ban said we commend NITI Aayog for this initiative to develop a multi dimensional measure of attainments and deprivations among children.
This project will undertake a whole-of-society approach of involving all stakeholders ranging from the union ministries, state governments, civil society organizations, and child rights collectives.
