Read this Challenge

It was very tough for me to read the contents of this link http://www.cry.org/crypage.asp (if u r unable to visit the link(www.cry.org -> projects and partnerships -> Statistics). Have given below an edited version of it.

If anyone can read it completely without feeling sick, do mention ur name. And for those who read it halfway and say its sad and quit, i will quote Bush "If you are not against them, you are with them".

Unless, you take a step to solve the problem, you are part of the problem.

So lets start the Read This Challenge
'The situation of underprivileged children in Indian
•40 percent of India's population is below the age of 14 years.
•About 60 million Indian children under the age of 6 live below the poverty line.
•Every second child in the country is malnourished.
•Almost 2 million children in India die every year before reaching their first birthdays.
•One in 11 dies before his/her fifth birthday.
•7 to 8 lakh children die every year from easily preventable diseases like diarrhoea.
•Children from 100 million families live without water at home.
•Children from 150 million families live in households without electricity.
•Less than half of India's children between the age 6 and 14 go to school.
•A little over one-third of all children who enroll in grade one reach grade eight.
•One in every ten children is disabled in India.

Education
•Girls are denied equal opportunities to attend and complete primary education.
•Unmet challenges include the improvement of the quality of schooling.
•India has the maximum number of 'out of school' children in the world.
•Only 60% of Indian children (the total child population below 14 is 228 million) reach grade V, and many of those 'completing' primary school cannot read or write.

The Girl Child
The alarming fact is that female infanticide or foetuses has increased over the past few decades. While in 1960 there were 976 girls born for every 1000 boys, in 2001, there are only 927 girls for every 1000 boys.
•1 out of every 6 girls does not live to see her 15th birthday
•One-third of these deaths take place at birth
•Every sixth girl child's death is due to gender discrimination
•Females are victimised far more than males during childhood
•1 out of every 10 women reported some kind of child sexual abuse during childhood, chiefly by known persons
•1 out of 4 girls is sexually abused before the age of 4
•19% are abused between the ages of 4 and 8
•28% are abused between the ages of 8 and 12
•35% are abused between the ages of 12 and 16
•3 lakh more girls than boys die every year
•Female mortality exceeds male mortality in 224 out of 402 districts in India
•Death rate among girls below the age of 4 years is higher than that of boys. Even if she escapes infanticide or foeticide, a girl child is less likely to receive immunisation, nutrition or medical treatment compared to a male child
•53% of girls in the age group of 5 to 9 years are illiterate
•Every year 27,06,000 children under 5 years die in India. And the deaths of girl children are higher than those of male children.

Child Labour
•100 million child labourers in India work in hazardous or exploitative conditions.
•They work for 12 - 15 hours a day and earn less than Rs.3 per day.
•They work with explosives, metals, and poisonous gases from the age of 3 - 4 years.
•15 million of these children are bonded labourers.
•There are 11 million homeless children, living on the streets.
•One out of two children between the ages of 6 and 14 has no access to primary education.
•80% of child labour is engaged in agricultural work
.•25% of the victims of commercial sexual exploitation in India are below 18 years of age.
•Millions of children work to help their families because the adults do not have appropriate employment and income thus forfeiting schooling and opportunities to play and rest.
•Children also work because there is demand for cheap labour. High incidence of child labour is a result of high incidence of adult unemployment.
•Large numbers of children work simply because there is no alternative - since, they do not have access to good quality schools.
•Poor and bonded families often "sell" their children to contractors who promise lucrative jobs in the cities and the children end up being employed in brothels, hotels and domestic work. Many run away and find a life on the streets.

Child commercial sex workers:
•There are approximately 2 million child commercial sex workers between the age of 5 and 15 years and about 3.3 million between 15 and 18 years
•They form 40% of the total population of commercial sex workers in India
•80% of these are found in the 5 metros
•71% of them are illiterate
•500,000 children are forced into this trade every year

Mentally/ physically challenged children:
•3% of India's children are mentally/physically challenged
•20 out of every 1000 rural children are mentally/physically challenged, compared to 16 out of every 1000 urban children
•Mentally/physially challenged girls are at a particular risk to violence and abuse

' CRY donations start at Rs.100. Online donation possible.http://www.cry.org/
another very good site is http://www.icicicommunities.org/communities/index.asp (i am not an employee of these sites)

PS : And whatever we have done is not enough, the stats seems to show we simply don't care....