Child Health-Unicef
Beyond Survival: A Global–Local Blueprint to Empower Every Child and Redefine the Future of
Childhood in India
By Vanshika Parmar
Executive Summary
In the twenty-first century, the trajectory of nations will be written in the stories of their children. India,
home to over 470 million children and adolescents, stands at a pivotal moment in history. UNICEF
India, with its mandate to protect every child’s rights and nurture their potential, has long been a
cornerstone of progress — advancing access to education, nutrition, health, protection, and
participation. Yet the challenges of today — deep-rooted inequities, climate change, gender
disparities, and digital divides — demand not incremental improvements but a paradigm shift.
This white paper proposes a comprehensive, forward-looking strategy for UNICEF India to
accelerate impact and transform futures. It outlines a global–local blueprint built on four interlinked
pillars:
1. Empowerment and Education: Reimagining learning as a tool for leadership, climate literacy, and
resilience.
2. Climate Resilience and Sustainability: Integrating environmental action into every aspect of child
welfare.
3. Women and Girls’ Leadership: Transforming protection into empowerment through mentorship,
leadership pipelines, and policy voice.
4. Policy Innovation and Youth Participation: Embedding adolescents as co-architects of solutions,
not passive recipients.
Drawing on insights from my work across continents — from grassroots child-centred initiatives in
Ghana, youth advocacy in the Philippines, and climate leadership efforts in Ladakh — this paper
demonstrates how evidence, lived experience, and visionary policy can converge to redefine
childhood in India.
It proposes actionable strategies such as building climate-smart schools, integrating nutrition with
education, developing youth policy councils, and creating leadership platforms for adolescent girls.
Anchored in global frameworks such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the UN
Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), and India’s National Education Policy 2020, it calls for
a future where every child not only survives but thrives — as a leader, innovator, and changemaker.
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Table of Contents
1. Executive Summary
2. Introduction: The Urgency of Now
3. Policy Landscape: Strengths, Gaps, and Future Pathways
4. Empowering Every Child: A Vision for the Future
5. Climate Resilience: Safeguarding Childhoods Against a Changing World
6. Women and Girls: Catalysts of Change
7. Policy Innovation and Youth Leadership: The Next Frontier
8. Case Studies: Evidence from My Global Work
9. How I Can Contribute to UNICEF India’s Mission
10. Conclusion: Reimagining Futures for Every Child
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2. Introduction: The Urgency of Now
India is home to the largest child and adolescent population in the world, with over 470 million young
people whose aspirations, agency, and leadership will define the nation’s future. UNICEF India has
been central to advancing their rights — safeguarding millions from preventable diseases, expanding
access to education, improving nutrition and sanitation, and strengthening child protection systems.
Its work has not only saved lives but also shaped policies and shifted social norms.
Yet, the landscape of childhood in India is evolving rapidly and becoming increasingly complex.
Persistent challenges, emerging crises, and shifting socio-political dynamics demand more than
programmatic responses; they demand systemic transformation.
2.1 Persistent and Emerging Challenges
Nutrition and Health: Despite decades of progress, malnutrition remains widespread. According to
NFHS-5 (2019–21), 35.5% of Indian children under five are stunted and 32.1% are underweight, with
severe implications for health, cognitive development, and life opportunities.
Education and Digital Divides: India’s education system has expanded massively, but inequities
remain stark. Learning outcomes are uneven, dropout rates remain high in marginalised regions,
and digital exclusion — highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic — threatens to deepen
educational inequality.
Child Protection: Issues such as trafficking, early marriage, child labour, and online exploitation
persist. Every year, over 1.5 million girls under 18 are married in India, while thousands of children
are trafficked across states.
Climate Change: India is among the most climate-vulnerable nations, and children are among the
most affected. Climate shocks disrupt education, health, and livelihoods, and exacerbate existing
inequalities.
Gender Inequities: Structural barriers continue to limit girls’ participation and leadership. Although
enrolment in primary education is near universal, only 27% of Indian women participate in the labour
force, and girls remain underrepresented in decision-making spaces.
2.2 Why Incremental Change Is Not Enough
These challenges are interconnected — and they cannot be solved in isolation. Tackling malnutrition
without addressing education, or promoting gender equality without climate resilience, will not create
sustainable change. The moment calls for an integrated, systemic approach that sees children not
as passive recipients of aid but as active agents in shaping solutions.
India’s demographic reality also adds urgency: by 2030, it will host nearly one-fifth of the world’s
youth. Harnessing this demographic dividend requires policies that nurture their creativity,
leadership, and capacity to innovate. Failure to do so risks entrenching cycles of poverty, exclusion,
and inequality.
2.3 A Global–Local Opportunity
India stands at the intersection of global ambition and local innovation. Frameworks like the
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)
set the vision for universal child rights and well-being. National initiatives such as the National
Education Policy 2020, POSHAN Abhiyaan, and Beti Bachao Beti Padhao have created strong
policy foundations.
However, achieving the SDG targets by 2030 requires accelerating impact — and doing so demands
visionary leadership, cross-sectoral collaboration, and policies that reflect the lived realities of
children and youth. This is where my vision and experience align with UNICEF’s mission: to bridge
grassroots insights with global frameworks and build models that scale.
2.4 My Vision for UNICEF India
My work — from designing school-based nutrition and protection programmes in Ghana, to
empowering children through sustainability dialogues in the Philippines, to advocating for climate
justice in Ladakh — has reinforced one truth: transformation happens when policy meets people and
vision meets lived experience.
I envision contributing to UNICEF India’s mission by bringing this global–local perspective into
action:
Bridging policy and practice to design scalable, child-centred interventions.
Amplifying children’s voices in policy and global advocacy.
Integrating sustainability, gender, and innovation into every layer of programming.
The next decade is decisive. By transforming how we think about children — not merely as
beneficiaries but as co-creators of the future — we can redefine what childhood means in India.
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3. Policy Landscape: Strengths, Gaps, and Future Pathways
Over the past decades, UNICEF India has played a transformative role in advancing the rights,
protection, and well-being of children. Through its partnerships with government, civil society, and
communities, it has influenced policy, improved service delivery, and catalysed social change.
Programmes in education, nutrition, child protection, water and sanitation (WASH), and adolescent
empowerment have reached millions and set the stage for long-term progress.
However, the evolving challenges of the 21st century — demographic shifts, climate change,
technological disruption, and entrenched social inequalities — call for a renewed policy architecture.
This section examines the strengths of existing frameworks, identifies critical gaps, and outlines
future pathways that align with UNICEF’s mission and India’s national priorities.
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3.1 Strengths: A Robust Foundation for Child Rights
India’s policy landscape provides a strong foundation for advancing child rights and development,
supported by global commitments and national frameworks:
Constitutional Mandates: Fundamental rights and directive principles guarantee the right to
education, nutrition, health, and protection for all children.
UNCRC Commitments: As a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), India
has enshrined children’s rights to survival, development, protection, and participation.
National Education Policy (NEP) 2020: A landmark reform that reimagines education as holistic,
multidisciplinary, and inclusive, with an emphasis on early childhood care, foundational literacy, and
21st-century skills.
POSHAN Abhiyaan: India’s flagship nutrition mission, focused on reducing stunting, undernutrition,
and anaemia.
Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS): Strengthening institutional mechanisms for child safety
and rehabilitation.
Beti Bachao Beti Padhao: A national campaign addressing gender-based discrimination and
promoting girls’ education.
UNICEF India has played a key role in shaping and implementing these programmes — providing
technical support, facilitating intersectoral coordination, and building evidence-based models that
inform policy and practice.
3.2 Gaps: Where Progress Falls Short
Despite these achievements, critical gaps persist, limiting the scale, depth, and sustainability of
impact. These include:
a) Fragmented Service Delivery
Policies and programmes often operate in silos, with limited integration across sectors. Education,
nutrition, health, and child protection interventions rarely converge at the community level, resulting
in duplication, inefficiency, and missed opportunities for synergy.
b) Persistent Inequities
Geographical, social, and economic disparities continue to define childhood outcomes. Children from
Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Castes, migrant families, and remote regions face compounded
disadvantages. Urban poor children remain invisible in many policies, particularly in informal
settlements.
c) Digital and Technological Divides
The digital revolution has transformed learning and service delivery — but millions of children,
especially girls and rural youth, remain excluded from digital access, limiting opportunities for
participation and innovation.
d) Weak Community Ownership
Top-down policy implementation often overlooks local knowledge and community leadership.
Strengthening local governance, Panchayati Raj institutions, and child-led platforms remains a
critical gap.
e) Insufficient Youth Participation in Policy
Young people are rarely included in the design, monitoring, and evaluation of programmes that
directly affect them. This lack of participation not only undermines effectiveness but also misses a
vital opportunity to harness their creativity and insight.
f) Climate Change Blind Spots
Despite increasing recognition of the climate crisis, most child-focused policies remain insufficiently
climate-responsive. Climate risks are rarely integrated into education, health, or protection systems
— leaving children vulnerable to disasters and displacement.
3.3 Future Pathways: Towards a Transformative Policy Framework
To meet the needs of India’s children in the coming decades, UNICEF India and its partners must
embrace a transformative approach built on the following principles:
Integration Over Isolation: Policies must transcend silos and adopt holistic, intersectional
approaches that connect education, nutrition, protection, gender equality, and climate resilience.
Equity at the Core: All strategies must prioritise the most marginalised — including children in
remote, tribal, urban poor, and climate-vulnerable regions — through targeted investments and
inclusive design.
Participation as a Right: Youth and adolescents should be embedded as co-designers of policy, not
peripheral beneficiaries. Their lived experiences must shape interventions.
Climate as a Child Rights Imperative: Climate resilience must be mainstreamed across all child-
related policies — from curriculum design to infrastructure planning and health systems.
Localisation and Community Ownership: Sustainable impact requires empowering local actors —
communities, panchayats, youth collectives — to co-own solutions and scale them contextually.
This evolving landscape demands not only policy adaptation but also policy imagination — a
willingness to rethink the architecture of child welfare and embed children and youth as the drivers of
that change.
4. Empowering Every Child: A Vision for the Future
Empowerment is not a programme — it is a paradigm. It redefines children and adolescents from
passive recipients of support into active architects of their own futures. True empowerment must
equip them with the knowledge, skills, confidence, and platforms they need to lead change within
their communities and beyond.
UNICEF India’s programmes have already laid important foundations in education, health, and
protection. Yet the next decade demands a shift from access to agency, from participation to power,
and from inclusion to influence.
Drawing on lessons from my fieldwork across continents — from classrooms in the Philippines to
child protection campaigns in Ghana — this section outlines three key pathways to empowering
every child in India.
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4.1 Education: Unlocking Potential and Purpose
Education is the most powerful vehicle of empowerment. Beyond literacy and numeracy, it must
cultivate leadership, critical thinking, empathy, and resilience — preparing children not just to survive
the future but to shape it.
Strategic Priorities:
Integrate Climate Literacy and Sustainability: Embed climate education into curricula to equip
children as environmental stewards and future policymakers.
Build Digital Competence: Ensure equitable access to digital learning tools and teach critical digital
literacy, especially for girls and marginalised groups.
Promote Experiential and Participatory Learning: Encourage community-based projects, student-led
initiatives, and real-world problem-solving.
Foster Global Citizenship: Introduce intercultural education that links local realities to global
challenges, nurturing children as global changemakers.
Example from My Work:
In the Philippines, I led experiential education programmes across schools and youth centres
involving children from over 85 countries. Through storytelling workshops and sustainability
dialogues, we linked classroom learning to real-world challenges — from climate change to
community leadership. These programmes demonstrated that children become leaders when they
are trusted as thinkers and problem-solvers, not just learners.
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4.2 Nutrition and Health: Building Strong Foundations for Empowerment
Empowerment is impossible without well-being. Malnutrition, poor health, and limited access to care
undermine children’s capacity to learn, lead, and thrive. Addressing these challenges requires
integrated solutions that treat nutrition and health not as standalone interventions, but as foundations
for empowerment.
Strategic Priorities:
Integrated School-Based Models: Combine nutrition, health screening, and education services within
schools to reach children consistently and holistically.
Community-Led Nutrition Campaigns: Empower mothers, adolescent girls, and youth leaders as
nutrition ambassadors.
Mental Health and Well-Being: Embed psychosocial support services within schools and community
centres to address growing mental health needs.
Nutrition-Linked Livelihoods: Connect nutrition programmes to family income generation (e.g., school
gardens, local food production).
Example from My Work:
In Ghana, I collaborated with schools and local leaders to run food distribution camps, integrate
nutrition into classroom learning, and conduct anti-drug awareness campaigns. These initiatives
demonstrated that when nutrition, education, and protection intersect, the impact is exponential.
Children not only attend school more regularly but engage more actively and achieve better
outcomes.
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4.3 Protection: Every Child Safe, Every Childhood Secure
No child can grow, learn, or lead without safety and dignity. Child protection is not merely the
absence of harm — it is the presence of systems and environments that nurture trust, participation,
and voice.
Strategic Priorities:
Strengthen Community-Based Protection Systems: Build local vigilance committees, youth watch
groups, and safe reporting mechanisms.
Empower Adolescents as Advocates: Train young people to lead campaigns on child rights, online
safety, and gender equality.
Digital Protection Frameworks: Address emerging threats such as cyberbullying, trafficking, and
online exploitation through policy and education.
Integrate Protection with Empowerment: Embed protection goals within broader education, health,
and climate programmes.
Example from My Work:
In Ghana, I spearheaded campaigns focused on child safety, anti-trafficking awareness, and
adolescent advocacy. By creating peer-led networks, we enabled young people to become first
responders and educators in their own communities. This approach showed that child protection
becomes most powerful when children themselves are part of the solution.
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6. Women and Girls: Catalysts of Change
Empowering girls is not only a moral imperative — it is the most transformative investment a society
can make. Educated, healthy, and empowered girls lift entire communities out of poverty, accelerate
economic growth, and shape more equitable societies. For UNICEF India, advancing gender
equality must go beyond protection and inclusion; it must centre leadership, agency, and decision-
making.
Despite notable progress — rising enrolment rates, declining child marriage, and expanding
reproductive health services — structural barriers persist. Deep-rooted gender norms, limited access
to secondary education, early marriage, and underrepresentation in decision-making spaces
continue to hold girls back. The time has come to shift the focus from “empowering girls” to girls
empowering the nation.
6.1 Strategic Priorities
Beyond Access: Leadership Pathways for Adolescent Girls
Move from protection-focused interventions to leadership-centred programmes. Establish
mentorship networks, leadership curricula, and adolescent-led advocacy platforms that position girls
as decision-makers, not just beneficiaries.
Transforming Social Norms
Partner with communities, religious leaders, and youth networks to challenge harmful norms around
gender roles, marriage, and education through storytelling, campaigns, and participatory theatre.
STEM and Future Skills for Girls
Launch targeted initiatives to increase girls’ participation in science, technology, engineering, and
mathematics (STEM) fields, digital skills training, and entrepreneurship programmes.
Economic Empowerment and Transitions
Link education to employment by providing vocational training, apprenticeships, and mentorship that
enable girls to transition from school to dignified livelihoods.
Example from My Work:
In Ghana and the Philippines, I witnessed firsthand how access to education transforms girls’ lives.
Through mentorship workshops and leadership dialogues with adolescent girls, we created safe
spaces for them to share experiences, build confidence, and explore pathways to leadership. Many
participants went on to lead peer education programmes, demonstrating how empowerment
multiplies when girls are given the tools and trust to lead.
Empowered girls are not just beneficiaries of change — they are architects of transformation. When
adolescent girls are given education, agency, and voice, they become leaders who shape policy,
drive climate action, and redefine their communities’ futures.
7. Policy Innovation and Youth Leadership: The Next Frontier
The future of child rights will not be written for young people but with them. Policies that impact youth
must be designed, implemented, and evaluated with their direct participation. Embedding
adolescents and young people as co-creators in policy processes not only strengthens outcomes but
ensures solutions are innovative, culturally relevant, and sustainable.
UNICEF India has an opportunity to pioneer a new model of governance — one where young people
are partners, innovators, and leaders in shaping their own futures.
7.1 Strategic Priorities
Youth Policy Councils and Advisory Platforms
Establish adolescent and youth councils at local, state, and national levels to co-create policies,
monitor implementation, and hold decision-makers accountable.
Innovation Labs and Policy Incubators
Create spaces where young people can prototype solutions to local challenges — from water
scarcity and education gaps to climate resilience — and present them to policymakers for scaling.
Youth-Led Monitoring and Accountability Mechanisms
Train youth collectives to gather data, evaluate programmes, and publish scorecards on child-related
policies, strengthening transparency and responsiveness.
Global–Local Knowledge Exchange
Facilitate opportunities for Indian youth to engage in global platforms (e.g., COP, ECOSOC Youth
Forum) and bring global best practices back to local communities.
Example from My Work:
At the G20 Ladakh Summit and across youth advocacy platforms in Africa and Southeast Asia, I saw
how adolescent-led solutions can transform policy design. Young leaders developed locally attuned,
culturally grounded solutions — from school-led waste management systems to peer mental health
networks — demonstrating that when youth are trusted as partners, innovation accelerates.
By embedding youth leadership across every level — from classrooms to cabinet tables — UNICEF
India can redefine governance as a participatory, inclusive, and future-ready enterprise.
8. Case Studies from My Global Work: Proof of Concept
My leadership journey has never been confined by geography — it has been shaped across
continents, cultures, and communities. Each chapter has deepened my understanding of child rights,
strengthened my policy vision, and demonstrated how evidence-based interventions can transform
lives. These experiences are not isolated achievements; they are prototypes for scalable impact that
align seamlessly with UNICEF India’s mission.
8.1 Ghana: Linking Education, Nutrition, and Protection
In Ghana, I collaborated with schools, community leaders, and youth networks to design
programmes that integrated nutrition, health, and education. Food distribution camps ensured
children stayed in school. Anti-drug and child protection campaigns built safe learning environments.
These initiatives showed that holistic, community-led models not only improve attendance and health
outcomes but empower children as advocates for their rights.
8.2 Philippines: Experiential Education and Global Citizenship
In the Philippines, I led storytelling workshops, sustainability dialogues, and school-based leadership
programmes with children from over 85 countries. By connecting classroom lessons to global
challenges such as climate change and social justice, we helped children develop critical thinking,
empathy, and leadership skills. The result was not only improved learning outcomes but youth-led
initiatives that addressed local issues from waste management to gender-based violence.
8.3 Ladakh: Climate Action as a Child Rights Imperative
At the G20 Commemoration in Ladakh and the Umling-La International Summit, I advocated for
climate justice as central to child rights. I proposed policies on climate-smart schools, resilient water
systems, and youth-led adaptation strategies. These platforms showed how global advocacy can
influence national priorities — and how children must be at the forefront of climate solutions.
Each of these experiences has strengthened my conviction that real transformation happens where
policy meets practice, where vision meets lived experience, and where global frameworks are
translated into local action.
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9. How I Can Contribute to UNICEF India’s Mission
My journey across Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Himalayas has not been a series of separate
projects — it has been a coherent mission deeply aligned with UNICEF’s purpose: to ensure that
every child not only survives but thrives, learns, and leads. I bring to UNICEF India a rare blend of
grassroots experience, global advocacy, and strategic policy vision, positioning me to contribute in
transformative ways.
9.1 Designing Child-Centred, Integrated Programmes
I can co-develop innovative, holistic programmes that integrate education, nutrition, protection, and
leadership development — moving beyond sectoral silos towards systemic solutions. These models
will reflect field realities while aligning with SDG targets and UNICEF’s strategic priorities.
9.2 Advancing Climate-Resilient Child Futures
Building on my advocacy in Ladakh and beyond, I will design climate-smart education systems,
resilient water infrastructure, and youth-led adaptation initiatives that protect children from climate
shocks and empower them as environmental leaders.
9.3 Empowering Women and Girls as Change Leaders
I aim to create mentorship networks, leadership curricula, and policy platforms that enable
adolescent girls to transition from beneficiaries to decision-makers. By embedding leadership into
empowerment, we can build a generation of women who shape policies, not just benefit from them.
9.4 Establishing Youth Policy and Innovation Platforms
I propose designing youth policy councils, innovation hubs, and policy incubators that allow
adolescents to co-create solutions, monitor progress, and shape the future they will inherit. These
platforms will bridge policy and participation, governance and grassroots.
9.5 Expanding Global Partnerships and Advocacy Networks
Leveraging my international networks and experience, I can help UNICEF India forge cross-border
collaborations, amplify its voice on global platforms, and bring global best practices into local
contexts — strengthening its leadership role regionally and globally.
My Value Proposition:
I do not offer UNICEF India only my experience — I offer a strategic partnership. I bring a proven
ability to translate vision into impact, to bridge local realities with global goals, and to design bold,
future-ready solutions that put children and youth at the centre. My goal is to strengthen UNICEF
India’s mission from the policy table to the classroom, from village councils to global forums.
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10. Conclusion: Reimagining Futures for Every Child
The challenges facing India’s children are profound — but they are not insurmountable. With bold
vision, integrated strategies, and collaborative leadership, they can be transformed into
opportunities. Opportunities to build a generation that is healthier, more educated, more equitable,
and more resilient than any before it.
UNICEF India stands as a beacon of hope and progress in this journey. But the coming decade
demands not just programmes — it demands paradigms. It demands leaders who can connect
grassroots realities with global frameworks, who understand that empowerment begins in
classrooms and extends to parliaments, and who believe that children are not just the future — they
are the present architects of transformation.
My journey — from classrooms in Ghana to storytelling workshops in the Philippines, from climate
summits in Ladakh to global advocacy platforms — has shown me that change is not only possible,
it is inevitable when vision meets commitment. It is this vision, and this commitment, that I hope to
bring to UNICEF India’s mission.
Together, we can build a future where every child is more than a survivor — they are a leader,
innovator, and changemaker. A future where education ignites potential, nutrition fuels ambition,
protection ensures dignity, and leadership empowers dreams.
The blueprint is clear. The moment is now. And I am ready to help shape it.