CHILD Protection & Rights > Child Protection Issues.

Situation in India

In India, both state and non-state actors field children in armed conflicts, which are taking place in at least 118 of India’s 604 districts, notably between armed Naxalite groups and India’s security forces, as well as between Hindu and Muslim groups. Children are used as scouts and to test the land for anti-personnel mines and other forms of explosives, as they are seen as being more expendable than adults.

The conflicts result in large numbers of children being affected, including suffering psychological trauma, being orphaned, wounded or even killed, especially in India’s north-east and highly-militarised Manipur. Child soldiers are also used in the states of Jammu and Kashmir, Assam, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Tripura, Sikkim, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, by both the state and anti-state groups. Children are often recruited from tribal communities, as these are frequently located in conflict zones. In anti-state militias, girls are reportedly being used for sexual gratification. A common strategy used by both sides to these conflicts is to recruit children aged around 14, as their age can easily be covered up.

The situation in Chhattisgarh State is of particular concern. State-sponsored militias usually recruit children by promising them future jobs with the State police department. A paramilitary group called the Salwa Judum also employs children as ‘Special Police Officers’. The Naxalites also have a child soldiers’ wing, called the Bal Mandal (or Child Forum).

In 2004, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child urged the Indian government to ensure investigations into allegations of the use of child soldiers in the State of Jammu and Kashmir and India’s north-eastern states.

International and National Framework in India on Children in armed conflicts

International Framework

The UN CRC contains several articles that specifically refer to this issue, namely article 38 on armed conflict and article 39 on the rehabilitative care of child victims of armed conflicts.

The Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict (2002) outlaws the involvement of children under age 18 in hostilities. As well as requiring States to raise the age of compulsory recruitment and direct participation in conflict to 18, the Optional Protocol requires States parties to raise the minimum age for voluntary recruitment beyond the current minimum of 15.

Humanitarian Law

The principles and provisions to protect children in armed conflict are laid out in the Geneva Conventions (1949) and their Additional Protocols (1977), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) and its Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict (2000), and the Rome Statute (1998) of the International Criminal Court.

More information on these Convention and Protocols: www.icrc.org

National Framework

- The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act 2000 deals with children in need of care and protection. According to 2 (d), a “child in need of care and protection” means a child who is victim of any armed conflict, civil commotion or natural calamity.