Paper short abstract:

The paper explored health rights under the CRC whether and the extent of violation on the disadvantageous population in geo-climatic vulnerable areas like Indian Sundarbans through a mixed method approach and recommends special approach for children’s basic health rights in disadvantageous regions.

Paper long abstract:

Specific health rights under Article 24 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, emphatically declares that governments shall pursue full implementation of stated rights and, in particular, shall take appropriate measures to diminish infant and child mortality, shore up immunization and lay stress on nutrition, water and sanitation, right to breastfeeding and prenatal and postnatal care.

However, there are huge noticeable gaps within the Indian Constitutional provisions, policy implementation and actual practice. The background of this discrimination depends upon age old socio-economic-cultural-political loose ends in India. A glimpse of the logic behind this paper is based on very few existing endeavours in the developing and underdeveloped countries..

The overarching challenge, from a research viewpoint, is whether and to what extent child health rights are violated on disadvantageous islanders in geo-climatically vulnerable areas like Indian Sundarbans, a set of islands situated in the South eastern part of India. The present paper specifically lays focus on:

1) How vulnerable are the children of Sundarbans in terms of their health rights?

2) Why it is important to view child health rights through the lens of climatic vulnerability for disadvantageous populations?

These objectives were tested through various basic health indicators, nutritional status of the children and health service utilization through a mixed method approach. The present paper would recommend the need for a special approach to address children's basic health rights especially in disadvantageous regions like Indian Sundarbans.