Education Is Spoiling Creativity

Over the years the field of family and child welfare in India has changed considerably in terms of its perspectives, complexity of its scope and the variety of professional expertise needed. The child population in India comprises of 42% of India's population which at 440 million is the world's largest child population. Despite several programmes on health, education and for child protection, the strengthened Juvenile Justice Act and other laws, the child indicators in India continue to be of immense concern. Compounded with the low indicators on health and education, violence against children in form of child sexual abuse, child trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation of children is increasing. What is alarming is the high levels of child malnutrition and adverse sex ratio, especially child sex ratio at 914 girls per 1000 boys. Child protection has become an urgent issue because of the macro processes of globalisation impacting socio-economic and political contexts within which families find themselves. With increasing push factors which compel women to work outside homes alternative care of children is emerging as a major concern and there are very few quality faculties being provided by the state or the private sector to address this need.

Children are losing their childhood and spaces for holistic and creative learning and within the current development scenario they are increasingly being viewed and treated as adults, be it as child labor, sex workers or as adult learners in mainstream education. With globalisation and increasing access to all kinds of information and technology, more and more families are aspiring for and sourcing higher incomes to cater to better standards of life, which entails greater mobility, migration and movement in search of better opportunities for livelihoods. This has created greater divides between the rich and poor and those having access to newer training and educational opportunities are able to gain and those