NITI Aayog and UNICEF India collaborated to develop India’s first report on State of India’s Children

Context

NITI Aayog has collaborated with UNICEF to develop India’s first report on State of India’s Children: Status and Trends in Multidimensional Child Development.

Key-Points

• The report on ‘State of India’s Children’ will create frameworks for understanding health and nutrition, education, water and sanitation, household living standards, and a child-friendly environment across states.
• Dimensions: The NITI Aayog and UNICEF India collaboration will develop the methods, technical analysis, reporting, and action planning focusing on multidimensional aspects of child development such as: 
  • Health
  • Nutrition
  • Education
  • Water and sanitation
  • Protection
  • other relevant issues.

• Collaboration: This project will take a whole-of-society approach, incorporating all stakeholders, including Union Ministries, State Governments, Academia, Civil Society Organizations, child rights and civil rights groups.

Significance

• This endeavor will contribute to India’s commitments to the 2030 Agenda by providing a set of policy suggestions for concerted action in terms of speeding progress toward the SDGs and ensuring holistic development for all children.

About UNICEF

• UNICEF is a special program of the United Nations (UN)devoted to aiding national efforts to improve the health, nutrition, education, and general welfare of children.
• UNICEF was created in 1946 as International Children’s Emergency Fund (ICEF) by the UN relief Rehabilitation Administration to help children affected by World War II.
• UNICEF became a permanent part of the United Nations in 1953.
• The name was shortened to United Nations Children Fund but it is still referred to as UNICEF.
• It is mandated by the United Nations General Assembly to advocate for the protection of children’s rights, to help meet their basic needs and to expand their opportunities to reach their full potential.
• UNICEF is guided by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989.
• It strives to establish children’s rights as enduring ethical principles and international standards of behaviour towards children.
• UNICEF Awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1965 for “promotion of brotherhood among the nations”.

• UNICEF Headquarters is in New York City.
• It works in over 190 countries and territories with 7 regional offices.
• UNICEF is governed by an Executive Board consisting of 36 members that are elected to terms of three years by the United Nations’ Economic and Social Council.

About NITI Aayog

• National Institution for Transforming India, better known as NITI Aayog, was formed via a resolution of the Union Cabinet on 1 January 2015. 
• NITI Aayog is the premier policy think tank of the Government of India, providing directional and policy inputs. 
• Apart from designing strategic and long-term policies and programmes for the Government of India, NITI Aayog also provides relevant technical advice to the Centre, States, and Union Territories.
• The Governing Council of NITI Aayog is chaired by the Hon'ble Prime Minister and comprises Chief Ministers of all the States and Union Territories with legislatures and Lt Governors of other Union Territories. 
• The Government of India constituted NITI Aayog to replace the Planning Commission, which had been instituted in 1950. 
• This step was taken to better serve the needs and aspirations of the people. An important evolutionary change, NITI Aayog acts as the quintessential platform of the Government of India to bring the States to act together in national interest, and thereby fosters cooperative federalism.