At last count in 1971, our urban population numbered 100 million, a figure larger than the total population of all but six countries in the world-the four metropolitan cities alone accounting for nearly 20 million. In the urban areas there are 42.5 million children below the age of 14. various estimates have been made from time to time of the proportion of families that live in conditions of poverty in slums, bastis, shanty-towns and pavements. these range from 35 to 50 per cent of the urban population. taking 45 per cent as a rough estimate, one may say that about 28 million children in urban India are being reared in conditions of poverty inadequate to provide for their healthy growth and development as productive citizens of the future.