The majority of all children born in India live in situations where malnutrition and poverty are the norm. Children are not receiving adequate education or none at all. The position of young girls is not the same as with boys, with girls ending up in poverty more often. The infant mortality rate lies at 44% and a fourth of all newborns are not immunized, fed properly according to the norm. The development and nutrition facts are far worse than the developing country average.

In 1975 the ICDS was founded to act upon the National Policy for Children in India. ICDS stands for Integrated Child Development Services and has gradually turned into one of the biggest world wide welfare schemes. The ICDS provides and supports supplementary nutrition and makes sure that infants and children receive regular health checks.

There is pre-school non formal education as well as nutrition information for parents, carers and children. The Indian government fully supports these services.

The need to support Indian families and their children to make sure that girls have the same position and opportunities as boys and that all infants have a chance to grow up healthy, is huge. The U.N. Recognizes this and supports the aid for children in India and has put great emphasis on the need of supplying aid to its children and young families by making sure to keep track of the current development of children in impoverished situations.

Slowly figures are starting to show that plans executed by the U.N. And ICDS are having an effect, but the position of especially young girls in India is still most unfortunate. They often simply do not get a real chance to get educated and end up working for their family from a very young age onwards. The plans and projects started and funded by the mentioned institutions will gradually improve the situation.  Soham for Kids is a small school, but we are happy to be doing our part to improve the situation as well.