Study of socio-economic status and gender negligence among children in Allahabad city of Uttar Pradesh

Child neglect also called psychological abuse which is defined as a failure by a child's caregiver to meet a child's physical, emotional, educational, or medical needs (Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2012). Forms of child neglect include: Allowing the child to witness violence or severe abuse between parents or adult, ignoring, insulting, or threatening the child with violence, not providing the child with a safe environment and adult emotional support, and showing reckless disregard for the child's well-being (Child Neglect and Psychological Abuse, 2011). The present study aims to assess the socioeconomic status and gender negligence among children of Allahabad city. A total sample of 300 children comprising of 100 children each (50 boys and 50 girls) from lower, middle and upper socio economic groups were selected using stratified random sampling technique for the study. Socio Economic Status scale by Kuppuswamy (1962) revised by Gururaj and Maheshwaran (2014) was used to ascertain the socio economic status of the selected respondents. To assess the socio economic status and gender negligence, a self made questionnaire was administered to the selected children in the age group of 7-12 years. The study revealed a highly significant gender variation in neglect among respondents belonging to lower, middle as well as upper socioeconomic groups, wherein girls were subjected to higher level of neglect in case of all the three socio economic groups.