Supreme Court on Children
The Supreme Court of India and the High Courts of the states have made enormous and innovative interventions using Article 21 of the Constitution of India – the right to life to consolidate and expand the human rights of children. This compilation of decisions on all the major issues relating to children and juveniles has, as a ready reckoner, short summaries preceding each chapter. Notwithstanding the court’s interventions, children in India continue to live and work in the most abysmal conditions and all the State pronouncements regarding affirmative programmes for children remain on paper as sanctimonious intent. Over 50 percent of Indian children are malnourished according to the National Family Health Surveys. A sizeable proportion of these are severely malnourished with stunted growth and shrunken brains – a whole generation of Indians growing up disabled!