Vol. 2, Issue 5, Part A (2016)

Child development and growth patterns are indicators of environmental health, whose degradation leads to diseases of various kinds in them. This is so because children are uniquely vulnerable to environmental toxicants due to their greater relative exposure, less developed metabolism and higher rates of cell production, growth and change. These environmental insults of childhood may manifest themselves over a life time of growth to adulthood and senescence, thus producing defective future population of a nation which would instead of being assets would be liabilities for the nation.
In addition to these physiologic vulnerabilities, majority of children in our society are also exposed to a number of social vulnerabilities as well such as poverty, malnutrition and environmental injustice. Moreover, since the society is not willing to do away with a number of these toxicants due to their role in the industrial progress of the society, the only alternative, that remains in these conditions is searching their alternatives.