If you will search on Google about Children's day celebration then every news report or articles suggests that we started celebrating 14th November as children's day after the death of our first prime minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru in 1964.

Times Now has recently published an article in which they wrote: 

Before India’s independence in 1947, Children’s Day was celebrated on November 20, the day observed by the United Nations as universal Children’s Day. But after Nehru’s death in 1964, it was unanimously decided to celebrate Children’s Day on the birthday of the first Prime Minister as a tribute to his love for children

Similarly Indian Express wrote:

Happy Children’s Day 2018: From 1964 onwards, his birthday has been celebrated throughout India as Children’s Day—a day to remember the first Prime Minister of India, who loved children as much as he loved his country.

NDTV, Financial Express have written the same thing.

We came across several tweets claiming that 14th Nov was declared as Children's day much before the death of Pandit Nehru.

Tweet Links (Tweet1, Tweet2, Tweet3)

India Post also celebrates Children’s Day by releasing special postage stamp every year on 14th November. Stamps issued on this occasion are the only stamps which are not designed by professional stamp designers of India Post. It was in the year 1957 when India Post issued a set of three stamps for the first time on 14th November. First of the stamp was depicting a boy eating a Banana. The price of the stamp was 8 Paisa. The stamp was created from a candid photograph of an eight-year boy Shekhar Borker. The photograph was selected from 10000 entries. Shekhar became famous as 'Banana Boy' after the stamp was issued. 

Ref: Indianphilately.net

In the stamp, you can clearly see the date which is 14-11-57 which means India celebrated the children's day on 14th November in 1957.

An article published by The Tribune in 2005 gives a detailed account of how Children’s Day come to be associated with Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s birthday.

In 1951, one V.M. Kulkarni, a United Nations Social Welfare Fellow, was carrying out a study on the rehabilitation of children, who had taken to crime in the UK. He realised that there was no system or institution to take care of the less-privileged children of India. In England, June 19, Queen Elizabeth II’s birthday, is observed as Flag Day to raise money for Save the Child Fund.

Inspired by this, Kulkarni presented a report to the UN in which he recommended that Pandit Nehru’s birthday could well be marked as Flag Day for collecting funds for non-government organisations working for child welfare in India. Nehru’s consent was sought. Embarrassed at first, he conceded reluctantly. An International fair was organised by the Indian Council for Child Welfare (ICCW) in 1951.

The article further states that November 14, 1957, was a red-letter day in the history of Children’s Day celebrations in India. The then President of India, Dr Rajendra Prasad, said in his address that no programme of social welfare could be complete unless there was a place for child welfare in it. The first set of three Children’s Day stamps was also brought out by the Department of Post and Telegraph.

It is quite evident that Children's day was actually started off as a movement for the children by VM Kulkarni, who himself was underprivileged growing up. It is quite unfortunate that none of the media houses talks about his legacy and role in starting Children's day.

So, all the available evidence suggest that India started celebrating children's day on Nov 14 much before the death of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. Therefore it is wrong to claim that prior to the death of Pandit Nehru, Children’s Day was celebrated on 20th November in India.

Image credit: Kids Activity Hub