The Situation of Children in India: A Profile

India is home to the largest number of children in the world, significantly larger than the number in China.1 The country has 20 per cent of the 0- 4 years’ child population of the world. The number of live births in the country is estimated to be 27 million,2 which again constitutes 20 per cent of the total number of live births in the world. Although the number of births is expected to gradually go down in the coming years, the relative load of India in the world in terms of child population is not going to lessen significantly for a long time to come. Therefore, the progress that India makes towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and targets related to children will continue to determine the progress that the world will make towards achieving the MDGs.