14th November, 2025
Mr. Dhananjay Kumar
Children’s Day is celebrated in India to raise awareness about the rights, education, and welfare of children. It is celebrated on 14 November every year on the birthday of the first prime minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru, who was known to have been fond of children. On this day, many educational and motivational programs for children are held all over India. Some schools in India make it a holiday to their students on Children’s Day while private schools organize a fair for their students.
On 5 November 1948, the first Children’s Day was observed as “Flower Day” by the predecessor of Indian Council of the Child Welfare (ICCW) to collect funds for United Nations Appeal for Children (UNAC) through the sale of “flower tokens”. On 30 July 1949, “Children’s Day” was widely celebrated and publicized through radio, articles, cinema, etc.
In 1951, V. M. Kulkarni, a United Nations Social Welfare Fellow, while carrying out a study on the rehabilitation of juvenile delinquents in the UK, realized that there was no system to look after underprivileged children of India. Inspired by the Flag Day observed in England on the birthday of Queen Elizabeth II to raise money for “Save the Child Fund”, Kulkarni presented a report recommending that Pandit Nehru’s birthday could be marked as Flag Day for collecting funds for NGOs working for child welfare in India. When Nehru’s consent was sought, he was at first embarrassed but then conceded reluctantly.
