The last nearly three decades of conflict in Kashmir not only left a trail of death and destruction behind, but it has also taken emotional toll on the local population. The conflict has led to considerable social problems across the state, particularly in Kashmir Valley.
The ground reality in Kashmir is changing slowly but surely as more and more young boys are either joining militancy or are at the forefront of the prolonged unrest, which, according to media reports, has consumed more than 150 lives since 8 July 2016, the day Burhan Wani was killed. Wani had joined the militant ranks in 2010, when he was just 15-year-old, a juvenile. Though he was an adult when government forces killed him, nobody will differ that he joined the militancy as a juvenile.
And Wani’s case is not an isolated one in the recent years. Just last year in May, 15-year-old Faizan Bhat, a juvenile became the youngest militant to get consumed by the long-drawn conflict in the state. The United Nations Convention on the rights of children (UNRC) 1989, of which India became a signatory in 1992, talks about the protection and care of children and states even a child who joins militancy needs to be rescued. Bhat was supposed to be rescued and not eliminated.
Not only the state, but separatist leaders in Kashmir should give a serious thought and ensure that children of Kashmir, who are becoming a casualty of the armed conflict, are saved. No doubt that there are political reasons for youth getting involved in conflict, but over the years the state’s failure to protect the children from or against any perceived or real danger or risk to their life, their personhood and childhood, is a matter of concern for all. It is a new dynamic in the present turmoil in Kashmir and a new addition to the decades old movements of defiance.
The Juvenile Justice Act (JJA) which was enacted in Jammu and Kashmir in 2013 couldn’t be implemented in the state unlike the rest of the country due to various reasons, which will be of no use to discuss here. Often it has been seen that juvenile offenders, including stone-pelters, in Kashmir end up being lodged in police lock-ups which compounds the problem. If children involved in stone pelting are locked in jails, there is every apprehension that some of them might become militants later. It is high time that we take steps to sensitize police officers, give them proper training and ensure that we deal with our children who are in conflict with law with due care and love.
Failure to ensure children’s right to protection adversely affects all other rights of the child. Thus, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) cannot be achieved unless child protection is an integral part of programs, strategies and plans for their achievement. Failure to protect children from issues such as violence in schools, child labour, harmful traditional practices, child marriage, child abuse, the absence of parental care and commercial sexual exploitation, amongst others, means failure in fulfilling both the Constitutional and International commitments towards children.
Implementing the JJA in the state is a challenge and all stakeholders need to gear up and we all have to join hands. A society is known by how much it cares for its children who are our future generation. If we do not care about them, we do not provide them right environment, we are going to be ruined.
However efforts of J&K government and particularly the Minister for Social Welfare in the recent past in implementing Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS) in the state are worth praise. There is no doubt that the hard work Mission Director ICPS is putting in to ensure that children in conflict must be treated with compassion will bring the desired results one day. The ICPS is a centrally sponsored scheme launched by the Government of India’s Ministry of Women and Child Development aimed at “building a protective environment for children in difficult circumstances, as well as other vulnerable children, through Government-Civil Society Partnership.”
Under ICPS, the constitution of juvenile justice boards (JJBs) and child welfare committees (CWCs) in each district of the state in the last two or three months are in a long way going to help the cause of child protection to a great extent. In Jammu and Kashmir, we are faced with so many problems, which the other states are not.
The successful implementation of the ICPS will enhance capacities at all levels, of all functionaries including, administrators and service providers, members of allied systems including, local bodies, police, judiciary and other concerned departments. It will also help to create a database and knowledge base for child protection services, including MIS and child tracking system in the country for effective implementation and monitoring of child protection services. The Scheme also envisages to strengthen child protection at family and community level create and promote preventive measures to protect children from situations of vulnerability, risk and abuse. Besides, it will raise public awareness, educate public on child rights and protection on situation and vulnerabilities of children and families, on available child protection services, schemes and structures at all levels.
The ICPS also visualizes setting up of State Child Protection Society in every State as the fundamental unit for the implementation of the scheme. The ICPS’s objective is to contribute to the improvements in the well being of children in difficult circumstances, as well as to the reduction of vulnerabilities to situations and actions that lead to abuse, neglect, exploitation, abandonment and separation of children from their families.
(Author is doctorate in Sociology from KU, and a member of J&K Juvenile Justice Board)