It was a manic Monday for people in Orissa. Seven people were killed and 18, including six fishermen, went missing in the Bay of Bengal off Paradeep in flash floods caused by incessant rains over the past 24 hours.

A recent Unicef 2005 report on the state of the world’s children under the title “Childhood Under Threat” says that over one billion children, half of the world’s population of children, have been denied their childhood. It is reported that some 640 million children lack adequate shelter; 400 million have no access to safe drinking water; 270 million lack health care amenities and 140 million — mostly girls — have never been to school. It was earlier reported that more than 150 million children are malnourished worldwide.