India

India

India has 29 states, and is diverse in customs, traditions, and languages. It is the second most populous and seventh most extensive country in the world with a land area of 2,973,190 square kilometers and a population of 1.4 billion which is 17.7 percent of the world’s population. 52 percent of the population is male and 48 percent is female.26 Child population in India (between the ages of 0 – 18) is 444 million, while the adolescent population (between the ages of 10 – 19) is 253 million. In 2000, UNICEF estimated that there are 18 million street children in India, the highest in the world.

Although the Indian constitution states that everyone has the right to life, liberty and the security of persons, female infanticide and feticide is still prevalent because many families prefer having boy babies over girls.