Atlas of the child in India

THE ATLAS OF THĘ CHILD IN INDIA is the end pro-
duct of a rescarch project sponsored and funded by the
Family Planning Foundation of India. The project focus-
sed its attention on the place of children in the Indian
population and their importance in the development
Process. It took threc years for a group of researchers at
the Jawaharlal Nehru University. led by Professor
Moonis Raza and Dr. Sudesh Nangia, to complete this
pioneering work aimed at delineating the neglected reg-
ional dimension of child demography. Its strong point
lies in the use of district level data for regional analysis.
The study was designed to provide exhaustive informa-
tion and an indepth analysis of the Indian child popula-
tion. In the global context the child population consti
tutes an important demographic component causally
linked bi-directionally with the development process.
Children are the potential human resource of a nation.
Unfortunately the developing world is rich in the quan-
tity of this resource but extremely poor in its quality.
These nations, however, have the potential as well as the
know-how to improve the quality of children with a view
to move forward towards a bright future.
The study highlights both the quantitative and qualita-
tive aspects of the child population through the presen-
tation of relevant data, its cartographic as well as diag-
rammatic representation and textual interpretation. The
four facets of the child population analysed are demog-
raphy, work-force, literacy as well as education and
child health. In addition, family planning. a factor af-
fecting both the quantity and quality of the child popula-
tion has also been taken up for analysis.
The study is largely based on data collected from pub-
lished and unpublished sources and material generated
by other projects related to the child population. Simple
statistical and mathematical techniques have been used
to process the data and work out the interrelationships
among the variables.
Social scientists in general and demographers as well as
geographers in particular are likely to find this volume
useful both as source-material for processed data and as
a regional framework for analytical work. Social work
ers engaged in child welfare and those involved in the
education and health sectors will find it a handy refer
ence volume. For policy makers and administrators
working for decentralised mioro-level planning and child
welfare it will prove to be a necessary input in overall as
well as day-to-day decision making.