Children in Andhra Pradesh
The full potential of the social capital generated by the state has not been harnessed to impact the key social development indicators for children
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The challenge
Andhra Pradesh is situated in the southeast of India and is the seventh-largest state. The north-western portion of Andhra Pradesh was separated to form the new state of Telangana on 2 June 2014. With Amaravati as its capital, Andhra Pradesh has a coastline of 974 km – the second-longest among Indian states, after Gujarat.
A few of the key indicators of the state: As per the Sample Registration System 2015, the under-five mortality rate stands at 39 per 1000 live births, while the neonatal mortality rate stands at 24 per 1000.
The maternal mortality ratio is 92 per 100,000 live births (Source: SRS 2011-2013). Based on the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 5, 16.1 per cent of children under the age of five years are wasted, and 6 per cent of children under the age of five are severely wasted.
The rural sanitation coverage stands at 57 per cent (Source: Swachh Bharat Mission MIS). However, as per NFHS 5 (2019), only 77.3 per cent of the population living in households use improved sanitation facilities. The state has also created 522 ODF-plus villages (aspirational) and established around 1861 SWM units.
Similarly, as per JJM IMIS (as of 9th May 2022), 57.82 per cent of households have access to functional household tap connections. As per NFHS 5, 29.3 per cent of women aged 20-24 years are married before the legal age of 18 years, which is higher than the national average.
The prevalence of marriage among adolescent girls aged 15-19 years is higher among the Scheduled Tribes than among other communities.
In the last decade, significant achievements have been made in education: primary enrolment is near universal, participation in upper primary schools has increased, and learning levels have improved.
At the same time, learning outcomes at Grade 5 and Grade 8 remain low. Andhra Pradesh, post-bifurcation, is working towards setting up model schools, especially for girls, despite a severe shortage of qualified personnel.
The Annual Status of Education Report 2016 findings show that after 10 years, reading and arithmetic scores have improved in public-funded schools in the early grades.
The biggest difference between studying in a private school and a government school is the poor learning outcomes for students.
The state has created a platform for women’s economic participation through self-help groups and functions in both rural and urban areas.
The state has taken some positive steps, including articulating Vision Swarnandhra 2029 to drive social and economic policies and notifying a state institute of transformation on the lines of NITI Aayog.
The government has already operationalized the ‘SMART Village SMART Ward’ programme and a state Nutrition Mission.
Advancing children’s rights and well-being
UNICEF is the lead development partner in the state to implement the government’s flagship health programme, the Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health (RMNCH+A) strategy, across four districts.
Besides, UNICEF gives technical support to the state to reduce stunting and undernutrition among infants and young children by promoting appropriate infant and young child feeding practices and treatment and management of severe acute malnutrition.
UNICEF also focuses on increasing hygiene awareness, supporting the state in its efforts to achieve open defecation-free plus status, and ensuring access to clean and safe drinking water by strengthening national flagship programs, the policy environment, and institutional capacities.
It supports strengthening the state’s capacity to access, generate and use data for evidence-based planning, budgeting and monitoring of health programmes. UNICEF supports the government in improving the quality of care provided in healthcare facilities, especially in marginalized communities.
A key component of UNICEF’s work is incorporating social, and behaviour change communication approaches in all programmes.
The focus of the immunization programme is on supporting the state’s efforts to eliminate measles, control rubella, introduce newer vaccines and address coverage issues in urban slums and pockets of low immunization coverage in the state. UNICEF also prioritizes improving the quality of cold chain and supply chain systems to ensure the quality of vaccines.
The state has a relatively effective governance mechanism and the potential to demonstrate innovations in nutrition. The existing Nutrition Mission for Andhra Pradesh is integrated with the POSHAN Abhiyaan, and UNICEF supports the state in monitoring and reviewing nutrition indicators periodically.
Through upstream advocacy, strengthening multi-sectoral partnerships, and initiating a social movement to reduce undernutrition at the gram panchayat level, particularly in tribal belts, is planned.
UNICEF prioritizes improving the quality of care and treatment of children with severe acute malnutrition through health facility-based and community-based approaches. UNICEF works to strengthen the reach and quality of the micronutrient supplementation programme for adolescent girls and women.
UNICEF is building the capacities of state and district officials to effectively implement the sanitation programme and deliver services on time.
UNICEF is creating a pool of master trainers in districts and through them reaching out, to blocks and gram panchayats to create sustainable open defecation-free plus communities.
UNICEF supports building the capacities of government departments for effective coordination, implementation, and monitoring of the education programme.
A key part of the advocacy efforts is on promoting model alternative elementary education systems that are flexible and inclusive in reaching out to out-of-school children and adolescents, especially those from marginalized communities.
UNICEF continues to build on systemic capacity to implement child-friendly teaching methods at scale, improving learning outcomes for children. Priority is given to strengthening the implementation of social protection schemes that enable parents to send their children to school.
UNICEF works with the state to strengthen enforcement of laws to prevent child marriage and focuses on placing violence against children and child marriage on the public agenda to generate dialogue and make the issue increasingly visible and politically important.
Priority is given to strengthening systems that prevent institutionalization of children and advocacy is focused on linkages with social protection schemes as a strategy to strengthen families and reduce the demand for residential care.
Child protection committees and village vigilance groups have been formed to prevent child abuse and exploitation and provide a safe environment for children.
UNICEFs Role
In Andhra Pradesh, UNICEF’s education program aims to work closely with the departments of Education, WCD, the Village and Ward Secretariat, among others, to bring parents, teachers, and local communities together to create an enabling environment for education and the development of the child.
UNICEF will advocate for policies and programs that are relevant and needed, and demonstrate results on the ground for the government to consider.
UNICEF assists the state in developing a trained child protection workforce, which includes recruitment and retention of staff. Support is also provided to strengthen the implementation of child protection programmes by building the capacities of child welfare committees, special juvenile police units, and Juvenile Justice Boards.
UNICEF’s cross-cutting interventions are built around two life-cycle phases – early childhood development (3-6 years) and adolescent empowerment (10-19 years) – which span all programme outcomes to advance children’s and women’s rights.
UNICEF sees investing in the second decade of life as critical to breaking the inter-generational cycle of deprivation, as adolescents have the potential to become change-makers rather than just passive beneficiaries.
UNICEF facilitates community dialogue and behavioural change to create spaces for adolescents to participate and promote change in areas of concern to them. UNICEF contributes to strengthening social protection programmes to enable adolescent girls to go to school and complete secondary education.
UNICEF works closely with the state government and partners to ensure that children are given due recognition in the fiscal space. The state produced the first child budget statement last year.
We also partner with the government to strengthen access for the most vulnerable families to social protection schemes through a network of grassroots-level organisations, CSO partners, Village volunteers in the village secretariat, and SHGs.
We are also working with more than 200 Gram Panchayats on implementing child-friendly local governance.
The state is prone to natural disasters, with 11 districts vulnerable to frequent cyclones that affect a sizable proportion of the state’s population. Similarly, 11 districts face frequent droughts.
Support is provided to mainstream disaster risk reduction into the Child Rights agenda through Comprehensive School Safety, strengthening Multi-Purpose Cyclone Shelters, CRIA, and capacity building of stakeholders.
The programme, through our partners in the State, is to strengthen the participation of adolescents and youths in disaster risk reduction planning by involving them in assessing child protection concerns during humanitarian situations.