UN report claims Indian children no longer at risk in conflicts, Kashmir activists disagree
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says India is no longer in the UN’s annual report on children in armed conflict. A group of activists questions the decision, documenting the latest violations of children's rights. In the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir, the authorities revived civil militia to fight separatist rebels.
New Delhi (AsiaNews) – After 12 years, India is no longer on the list of countries in which children are used in armed conflicts. For this reason, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres praised the steps taken by the Indian government to protect children in Jammu and Kashmir, a Muslim-majority state disputed with Pakistan.
Every year since 2010, India was included in the Secretary-General Annual Report on Children and Armed Conflict, along with countries like Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Nigeria, Pakistan, and the Philippines for alleged recruitment of boys by armed groups and their detention, killing, and maiming by Indian security forces.
According to the UN study, released on Tuesday, such practices are no longer happening. Yet, the Human Rights Forum in Jammu and Kashmir, an organisation of former government officials, judges, lawyers, and activists, note that the rights of children and teenagers are still violated in the state, and have been for years.
“The Juvenile Justice Act was not implemented and the juvenile homes there (in Jammu and Kashmir) were not functioning properly,” said Indevar Pandey, secretary of the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development, cited by The Indian Express.
However, “Other infrastructure such as Child Welfare Committees, Juvenile Justice Boards, Child Care Homes have since been established,’’ he added. This became possible by various policies and institutional changes implemented since 2019 in cooperation with UN officials.
That year, the Indian government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), also curtailed the limited autonomy enjoyed by Jammu and Kashmir.
The UN Security Council expressed concerns. As recently as May 2021, it warned that “grave violations against children" were still taking place in the state; in August of that year, police detained at least nine minors aged 14 and 17 and beat them in custody for weeks, the Human Rights Forum reported.
In addition, Jammu and Kashmir is still not yet completely pacified. On the contrary, Indian authorities reactivated a civilian militia called Village Defence Guards (VDGs) after attacks in January in border villages near Pakistan reportedly left two children dead and a teenager wounded.
VDGs were originally set up in 1995 to fight rebels demanding independence or merger with Pakistan, but had waned since then.
With recent attacks against Hindus and Sikhs rising, local civilians have demanded weapons and training to act in emergencies with hundreds of people signing up since January.
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