FLAGBEARERS OF THE FUTURE: India celebrates Children's Day on Nov. 14, 2009. A child with the Indian flag leads others during a run on the occasion of World Food Day at India Gate in New Delhi on Oct. 16, 2009. File photo: PTI
FROM THE STATE: Although India has chalked envious economic growth rates, little has percolated to the country's children, who constitute nearly 30 per cent of itsbillion-plus population. In this photo, the President, Pratibha Patil, Vice President, Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, and Delhi Chief Minister, Sheila Dixit, are seen with children on Nov. 14, 2009, after paying ceremonial tributes to the first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, whose birthday is observered as Children's Day in India. Photo: PTI
EXPECTATIONS RUN HIGH: For childcare to be comprehensive, healthy interventions are called for from pregnacy. Maternal healthcare in India, however, leaves a lot to be desired. A recent international report said India's maternal mortality rate is 16 times higher than in Russia and 10 times higher than in China. File photo of expectant mothers at a yoga session in Madurai, Tamil Nadu: M. Moorthy
SAVING THE GIRL CHILD: Vulnerability, for Indian girls, starts from the womb. Deep-rooted prejudices continue to pose a serious challenge for policy makers. In the picture a girl participates in an awareness programme in Chandigarh on Aug. 1, 2009. Photo: Akhilesh Kumar
DEPRIVATION AND THE CHILD: Children bear a direct consequence of economic deprivation. In this file picture, Sumu Hembram, 65, nourishes her newly born granddaughters as their mother Pheden, not in picture, is away at the field to work at Chhatni village, Ayodhya hills in Purulia district, about 375 kilometers west of Kolkata. Photo: AP
LOOKING ASKANCE: For millions of Indian children, there is no escape from malnutrition. According to UNICEF, nearly half of the children in India under the age of 3 are malnourished and one third of the world's children suffering from malnutrition are in India. Photo: AP
GROWING UP ROOFLESS: The lack of proper housing is one of the downsides of rapid urbanisation. Hardly a setting for a safe childhood. Photo: AP
EXPOSED TO THE ELEMENTS: Akbar, a three-year-old sits on his mother's lap, while his brother Yamin sleeps unaware of the flood waters invading their riverside tenement in Delhi. File photo: AP
VICTIMS OF DISASTERS: Children are particularly vulnerable after natural disasters. A child stands near a collapsed house at a flood-hit village in Karnataka on Oct. 6, 2009. Photo: PTI
THE FIGHT GOES ON: Poverty eradication is a necessary precondition for a better environment for the country's children. A child is seen participating in a campaign by the UN to eradicate poverty on Oct. 16, 2009. Photo: AP
A LAUDABLE INTENT: School girls participating in School Challo Abhiyan,in an education for all programme in Lucknow. Photo: Subir Roy
EDUCATION FOR ALL: The government's plan to provide education, albeit well-intended, runs the risk of turning into a futile exercise unless there is a subtantial stepping up in infrastructure and other support facilities. In the picture, children peep from inside a classroom of a school in a slum in Hyderabad. File photo: K. Ramesh Babu
PLAY TIME: Good recreation facilities are an essential requirement for healthy childhood. A child risks a ride on a buffalo on the banks of the river Tawi in Jammu on Nov. 13, 2009. File photo: AP
CHILDHOOD DISABLED: Shruti Sonkar, a physically challenged Indian child waits during a free distribution of ‘Jaipur Foot’ in Mumbai, India, Wednesday, Oct.28, 2009. Photo: AP
CHILDHOOD BARTERED: A man, top, hands a wayside child vendor a Rs. two coin to buy a lotus flower on the eve of A festival in Bhubaneswar, on Nov. 1, 2009. India is home to the world's largest number of children at work. Photo: AP
AT WORK: Children's Day comes every year, but not for millions like this boy in Patna, who is at a roadside shop on the eve of Children's Day. Photo: Ranjeet Kumar
DREAMS TO LIVE, BUT MILES TO GO: Enhancing the quality of life for India's children is a key challenge before the state. File photo: AP