Indian Defence Review

Halting the Trend

The phenomenon of child insurgents violates the universal rule that children do not have any role in warfare. When children are engaged as insurgents, they are likely to indulge in violence since they construct their values and identities guided by military groups and their agendas. They are transformed into vehicles of violence rather than citizens who can build peace. Child soldiering then damages societies, threatens regional stability and is a high-priority issue in building peace, which is inalienable from human rights. The issue of child soldiers is largely a hidden one because most of them spend their time in remote conflict zones, away from public view and media scrutiny. They are invisible because no record is kept of their numbers or their precise roles. Many of them may not be part of the formally claimed strength of the forces or groups to which they are attached but are nevertheless unacknowledged members.

As long as insurgency continues to create an opportunity space for children, they will continue to be drawn to armed groups as a way to meet basic needs. To prevent child recruitment, this opportunity space must be shrunk through multifarious strategies appropriate to the situation. Since cases of forced recruitment or large-scale enrolment of children is not found in the Northeast, tackling the issue and putting a stop to recruitment could be easier than in the Maoist-affected states of the country or even in other countries where the problem has surfaced.

“¦possibility of these children joining another armed group after surrender cannot totally be ruled out given past instances and the existing situation in some states of the region.

India is a signatory to the UN-sponsored Convention on the Rights of the Child, which is a comprehensive document prohibiting child recruitment. But none of the accords signed so far by the government with insurgent groups has ever acknowledged the presence of child or women guerrillas, let alone initiate measures for their rehabilitation. The government must first accept that there is a need to look at child guerrillas from a different perspective and that simply concluding an agreement with a militant outfit and ensuring surrender of arms may not be the end of the problem. The possibility of these children joining another armed group after surrender cannot totally be ruled out given past instances and the existing situation in some states of the region.

During his field research covering Afghanistan, Angola, Kosovo, Northern Uganda, Sierra Leone and South Africa, the celebrated scholar Michael Wessels unravelled that psychosocial disorders are not uncommon among child soldiers, which necessitates specific programmes for them.19 The government’s task would have become difficult if it were to make efforts for children in underground outfits waging war, but almost all the militant groups in the Northeast that have recruited children have come overground through ceasefire agreements and have shown a willingness for a negotiated settlement. As such, none of these groups is likely to spurn programmes aimed at rehabilitating children. Irrespective of the progress made in talks on the demands of the outfits, agreements can be clinched between them and the government for initiating immediate steps like vocational training and counselling that would assist the children to get jobs and resume a normal life after the group has given up arms.

There is a consensus among researchers on the subject that stringent laws alone cannot lead to large-scale reductions in the use of children by armed groups. While the long-term strategy of putting an end to insurgency and related issues like small-arms proliferation in the region must relentlessly be pursued, efforts must be on to put in place effective measures at the local level that enhance awareness about child recruitment and curb the push and pull factors contributing to the phenomenon. Since the church and some civil society organisations have tremendous influence in the affected zones in the Northeast, they must be roped in to device mechanisms for monitoring, reporting on and acting on recruitment. The delivery mechanism of the government apparatus will have to be improved to ensure that development programmes reach the remotest corners, including the frontier tracts, and that they are implemented without delay and seepage of funds.

Conclusion

Insurgent outfits in India’s Northeast recruit and make use of children in a variety of ways and in a manner distinguishable from the practices followed by groups in other parts of the country and other countries in the world. Children end up in armed groups owing to a distinct set of push and pull factors, and often it is the child’s response to a situation of danger and uncertainty that has plagued many states in the region. As such, the phenomenon is intricately linked to the macro socioeconomic and political processes at work that have produced rapid and irrevocable changes in the tribal societies. In spite of a commitment to protect the rights of the child, the Indian government has neglected the issue, which is evident in its approach to talks with the militant outfits and the accords that have so far been concluded with them.

However, since groups that have enrolled children are overground and engaged in a peace process, efforts to curtail recruitment and detach children from militant camps could yield positive results. These efforts must encompass both the long-term strategy of putting an end to insurgency and related issues like small-arms proliferation in the region and the short-term goal of raising awareness about children and their rights and involving civil society organisations.