Dr Vashishtha rightly draws attention to increasing urban poverty as a "blot on our country’s shining armor"(Indian Pediatr 2009; 46:875-876). There, of course, are many other blots! Abysmal living conditions and lack of basic facilities (safe water, health care, education etc) faced by the urban poor are well-recognized, and preventable diseases, abuse and exploitation, and antisocial activities have been on the rise in metropolitan cities. The burgeoning immigration from rural areas of some of the poor states to cities has put intolerable strain on their infrastructure. Children are the worst sufferers in such adverse conditions. Infants and young children remain abandoned and uncared for while older children are often out of school, employed in various forms of work or on the street.

Whereas IAP can do little about poverty and poor governance, it can help to tackle the problems of children in urban underprivileged communities. Basic health care and education are crucial rights of every child and must be demanded. The parents being illiterate and poor cannot take proper care of their children. That responsibility must be assumed by the community, their elected representatives and the Govt officials, who should have the onus of looking after the sanitation, nutrition and health care and schooling of children in the underprivileged communities (urban slums, migrant clusters on the urban periphery and those at the construction sites). The necessary financial inputs should be obtained and their utilization accounted for. The Right to Education (promising free, compulsory education) is now the law of the land. It is for the community to demand and ensure that schools are made fully functional and every child is in school.