New Delhi – Children have the potential to transform the country, but if neglected, they will exacerbate the burden of poverty and inequality. Addressing the issue World Vision India and IFMR LEAD released The India Child Well Being Index, which looks at how India fairs on composite child well-being.

The Index mined the most recent data and adopts a multi-dimensional approach towards measuring child well-being.

The report highlighted the multi-dimensional approach towards measuring child well-being – going beyond mere income poverty.

Cherian Thomas, National Director and CEO, World Vision India said, “It is imperative that all stakeholders prioritise and invest in the well-being of our children.”

The Child Well-Being Index is a tool designed to measure and track children’s well-being comprehensively.

The three dimensions of the index are – Healthy Individual Development, positive Relationships and and protective contexts. Focusing on the three key dimensions, 24 indicators were selected to develop the computation of the child well-being index.

The index captures the performance of each State and Union Territory on a composite child well-being score, with Kerala (0.76), Tamil Nadu (0.67) and Himachal Pradesh (0.67) leading the charts among the states and Meghalaya (0.53), Jharkhand (0.50) and Madhya Pradesh (0.44) featuring at the bottom, among states. Among the Union Territories, Puducherry leads the way with a score of 0.77 and Dadra & Nagar Haveli features at the other end with a score of 0.52.

Child well-being scores for the States and Union Territories for the three different dimensions are listed below:

Healthy Individual Development
States in the first quartile	Scores	States in the last quartile	Scores
Kerala	0.78	Assam	0.36
Goa	0.75	Bihar	0.36
Sikkim	0.70	Meghalaya	0.31
Punjab	0.67	Madhya Pradesh	0.27
Tamil Nadu	0.66	Jharkhand	0.26
Union Territories	Scores	Union Territories	Scores
Lakshadweep	0.89	Dadra and Nagar Haveli	0.38

Contexts that provide safety
States in the first quartile	Scores	States in the last quartile	Scores
Sikkim	0.78	Maharashtra	0.56
Kerala	0.75	Madhya Pradesh	0.55
Himachal Pradesh	0.74	Telangana	0.55
Bihar	0.73	Goa	0.51
Uttarakhand	0.72	Andhra Pradesh	0.42
Union Territories	Scores	Union Territories	Scores
Lakshadweep	0.94	Daman and Diu	0.55

Positive Relations
States in the first quartile	Scores	States in the last quartile	Scores
Nagaland	0.84	Maharashtra	0.58
Arunachal Pradesh	0.80	Madhya Pradesh	0.57
Meghalaya	0.77	Telangana	0.55
Assam	0.76	Haryana	0.53
Chhattisgarh	0.76	Jammu & Kashmir	0.53
Manipur	0.76	Sikkim	0.51
Union Territories	Scores	Union Territories	Scores
Puducherry	0.83	Lakshadweep	0.31