The State of the World’s Children 2025 (SOWC), published by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), serves as a reminder that children are not incidental beneficiaries of development; they are at its very core. They are the drivers of future development. Every human aspiration, starting from sustained growth, social equity, and climate resilience, to the Government of India’s vision of Viksit Bharat@2047 (i.e. the ambition to evolve as a developed nation by its 100th year of independence in 2047), rests fundamentally on the well-being, capabilities, and opportunities afforded to children. SOWC argues that childhood poverty is not a consequence of insufficient global resources, but of misplaced priorities. Presently, 412 million children live in extreme poverty (surviving on less than US$3.00 per day). By adjusting the poverty threshold to US$8.30 per day, considered typical for upper-middle-income countries, the estimates of children living below monetary poverty increase dramatically to almost 1.4 billion. These are not statistics on deprivation alone; they are indicators of weakened human capital formation, diminished resilience, and compromised life trajectories.
Investing in Children for Climate Adaptation (Nilanjan Ghosh – Observer Research Foundation)
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