Insurgent armies in India's restive Northeast region are exploiting the area's poverty to recruit

and press-gang underage fighters and the problem has dramatically worsened in recent
years--------Correction appended: March 25, 2014

Early one morning in 2012, three boys, all in their early teens, left their village in
Manipur, a state in Northeast India on the Burmese border. They were being lured away
on the promise of unspecified employment and a pledge that, in exchange for their
labors, their parents would be taken care of.

The job, as it turned out, was one of killing. The boys were taken by a recruiting agent
deep into the jungles of Burma (which is officially known as Myanmar) for military
training. They had been shanghaied into a ragtag army waging a war against India for a
banned rebel outfit, the Peoples Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (PREPAK) an
insurgent group fighting for a separate homeland in Manipur.
They took me and my two other friends to the temple, says 15-year-old Tomba (whose
name has been change to protect his identity). There, the boys had to vow never to run
away.
They were kept in a small room, with a television set and wooden beds, for two days. On
the third morning they were forced into a car and crossed the border near the town of
Moreh. After walking for miles, they reached a training camp where they met seven
more boys of their age.
Life in the training camp was hard. They had to wake up early for physical training and
the food was inadequate. But there were slightly bigger boys with guns in smart, army
habits. The guns and the jackets I liked. I was told Id have one of my own, says
Tombas friend, who, along with Tomba and the other boy, has now been released.

This is how child soldiers are being recruited, brainwashed and sent to the front lines of
Indias insurgencies today.
In 2012, 10 boys were forcefully taken to insurgent training camps in Burma. Three were
lucky pressure from local rights groups forced their release.
Nineteen children were recruited in 2008. That year, a video was circulated by PREPAK
depicting armed child soldiers parading in front of the cameras at a training camp in
Burma.
Today, the numbers have soared dramatically. The Asian Centre for Human Rights says
there are at least 500 child soldiers now in the Northeast a region that comprises
seven states ethnically, geographically and culturally distinct from the rest of India. If
they are convinced and thrilled by the guns and the life, it is very difficult to get them
back, says Annie Mangsatabam, who chairs a child-welfare committee in Manipur.
Even if they come back, they and their families are always at risk from the rebels.
In March 2013, a 15-year-old girl from Manipur, Sanahanbi Khaidem, went missing.
Within days of her disappearance, her mother received a call from the Revolutionary
Peoples Front the political arm of the banned militant group Peoples Liberation
Army of Manipur. Sanahanbi, they informed the mother, was in their training camp in
Burma. That same day in March, 14-year-old Alice Kamei, a school friend of Sanahanbi,
disappeared as well. Her mother received a similar call.
The local police said they would try their best to get the girls back, but a year on nothing
has changed. Our hands are tied. We cant go into Burma and rescue the girls, says

Titus Kamei (no relation to the missing girl Alice Kamei), who is part of a local rights
group campaigning for their release.
The silence of the Indian government exacerbates the situation. New Delhi refuses to
recognize the existence of child soldiers and insists there are legislative provisions that
prevent involvement of children in armed conflict. The on-ground reality is very
different.
There are at least 30 militant outfits spread over the hills and valleys of Manipur. Many
have training camps in Burma. And there are conflicts that have been dragging on for at
least five decades in Northeast India. To contain them, New Delhi enforces the Armed
Forces Special Powers Act a special legislation first introduced in 1958 to contain
Naga insurgents. It allows security forces to arrest, detain and kill, without fear of
prosecution.
According to a petition submitted to Indias Supreme Court in October 2012 by
Manipurs Extrajudicial Execution Victim Families Association and other NGOs, 1,528
civilians, including 98 children, were killed by security forces in Manipur between 1979
and 2012. Unsurprisingly, such brutality has alienated the locals, aggravated the
conflicts and formed a ready pool of would-be insurgents
Poverty also plays a role. The seven states of Northeast India rank lowest in terms of
infrastructure development, and most of the child soldiers are recruited from very poor
families. I was promised a cell phone, says one of the boys recruited with Tomba.
Representatives of insurgent groups have asked campaigners in Manipur to lie low on
the issue of child soldiers. Their message is simple: Back off. And despite Indias

attempt to fence part of its border with Burma in Manipur, to prevent the free
movement of militants, not much has changed. The recruitment of children into
insurgent armies does not upset the political equilibrium in New Delhi. Other than their
families, no one really cares about the children who go missing only to reappear in
uniform armed, and at the same time piteously vulnerable.
An earlier version of this article misspelled the surname of the child-welfarecommittee chairperson. She is Annie Mangsatabam, not Mangsatbam. It also
misspelled the given name of one of the missing girls. She is Sanahanbi, not Sahanabi.

At least 3,000 children as young as six are being recruited by insurgent groups across
India, according to a new report published by a human rights group.
The New Delhi-based Asian Centre for Human Rights says the practice of using child
soldiers is rampant, with the majority recruited in Maoist-affected states
like Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal.
Maoist rebels, also known as Naxalites, have been described by Prime
MinisterManmohan Singh as Indias greatest internal security challenge. They assert
control over vast areas of land in central and eastern India. The insurgency was
launched in the late 1960s in West Bengal. The rebels say they are fighting for the rights
of indigenous tribes and the rural poor, and their ultimate goal is to create a communist
society.
The report, which was submitted Thursday to the UN Committee on the Rights of the
Child, says around 500 child soldiers have also been recruited in Jammu and Kashmir
and parts of northeast India such as Manipur, where separatist groups have fought
Indian forces for decades.
UNICEF defines a child soldier as a person under 18 years of age who is part of any
kind of regular or irregular armed force or armed group in any capacity, including but not
limited to cooks, porters [and] messengers.

The Asian Centre for Human Rights said authorities in Chhattisgarh have admitted
using around 300 children as Balarakshaks, which the rights group describes as child
police officers. Seven children were also deployed in an armed police battalion. It didnt
describe the roles these children played.
We have a sufficient number of officers in our police force. Why would we send children
to the conflict areas? Chhattisgarh police has 70,000 officers and only 300
Balarakshaks, why would we require their help? Ram Niwas, an additional director
general of police in Chhattisgarh, told India Real Time.
Our main motive is to support them economically. The children have lost their fathers
fighting in service or other ways, so we help them. Its a goodwill gesture, he said.
The Asian Centre for Human Rights report said Mr. Niwass colleague, Giridhari Nayak,
admitted that children had to report for duty three days a week. They are mostly asked
to do soft jobs like carrying files from one table to another, but it surely affects their
schooling, the report quoted Mr. Nayak as saying.
India ratified the Optional Protocol on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of
children in armed conflict in 2005. The protocol requires countries to ensure that
members of their armed forces who are under 18 do not play a direct role in hostilities.
Governments must also take legal measures to stop independent armed groups from
recruiting and using child soldiers.
In 2011, in its first report on the implementation of the UN protocol, the government
said India doesnt face any armed conflict situations. Therefore, child soldiers cannot
exist, it said. The report, drafted by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, will
be examined by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in October.
The Asian Centre for Human Rights says the Indian government is in denial about the
recruitment of child soldiers.
Everybody knows there are so many armed conflicts in the country and the government
of India has the audacity to tell the UN that they dont have any armed conflicts, possibly
to keep away the international community, said Suhas Chakma, director of the Asian
Centre for Human Rights.
The government of India doesnt want children to go into the [Maoist] fold, but you have
to defeat them first and then you get the children out, said M.A. Ganapathy, a joint
secretary at Indias Ministry of Home Affairs.

Do you think any government would like small children to be involved in fighting? he
added.
The charity War Child estimates there are around 250,000 child soldiers in the world.
40% are girls.

7-year RI proposed for recruiters of child soldiers

Children in conflict zones can now hope for some legal protection. In its
draft Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Bill, 2014, the
women and child development ministry has proposed up to seven year
rigorous imprisonment, Rs 5 lakh fine or both for militant groups who
recruit child soldiers or use children for any purpose.
Child soldiers have been a serious concern for various rights groups across
the world. In India, Maoists and other militant outfits use child soldiers to
fight their war or as couriers to carry messages or supplies. However, there
is no law specifically addressing this issue.
National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) chief Kushal
Singh welcomed the provision in the draft bill. "This was much needed as it
is a total violation of child rights," Singh told TOI.
Besides, the draft widens the definition of corporal punishment by
including physical and verbal abuse. So, parents who beat their children
can now land in jail. The draft bill proposes stringent punishment for those
who subject "a child to corporal punishment causing hurt and emotional
distress for the child".
Offenders could face jail term between six months on first conviction.
Depending on the gravity of physical injury and mental trauma of the child,
the offender could be punished with three to five years in jail and up to Rs 1
lakh fine. If the offender is an employee of an institution dealing with
children, he can be dismissed from service for repeat offence. Even the
management of such institution can be sentenced to up to three year jail
and Rs 1 lakh fine for non-compliance or non-cooperation in any probe.

If the bill is passed in Parliament, India will join 40 other countries where
corporal punishment is a penal offence.
Those ragging students within or outside an institution can be sentenced to
up to three years in jail and fined up to Rs 1 lakh. Anybody found to abet or
propagate ragging can land in jail, too.

Thousands recruited as child soldiers, India defends the

records of the terror groups before the UN Child Rights
Committee
New Delhi: Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) today released its report, Indias
Child Soldiers, the first ever comprehensive study on the subject in India, and
accused the Government of India of defending the records of the armed opposition
groups, officially designated as terrorist groups, on the recruitment of child soldiers
before the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. India in its first report on the
implementation of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child
on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict to the UN Committee in 2011 stated
that there is no recruitment of child soldiers including by the armed groups in
India. The first periodic report of India will come for preliminary examination by the
UN Committee on the Rights of the Child during its 66th pre-sessional working group
to be held in Geneva from 7-11 October 2013 while NGOs are required to submit their
reports by 1 July 2013. ACHR submitted its report today to the UN CRC Committee.
The recruitment of child soldiers by the armed groups including the Naxalites is
rampant and at least 3,000 children i.e. 500 in the North East and Jammu and Kashmir
and about 2,500 in the Naxal affected States currently remain involved in armed
conflicts. This estimate of child soldiers is conservative considering that the Maoists
follow the policy of forcibly recruiting at least one cadre from each Adivasi family. stated Mr Suhas Chakma, Director of Asian Centre for Human Rights.
In addition to providing 11 cases of forcible recruitment of child soldiers by the armed
groups, Asian Centre for Human Rights presented a number of photographs of child
soldiers surrendering with their arms before then Home Minister P Chidambaram and
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi in 2011 and 2012.

Regrettably, the State Governments of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh have been
recruiting children below 18 years as "boy-orderlies under Section 60 of the Madhya
Pradesh Police Regulation and deploying them for combat purposes. While hundreds of
children below 18 years have been recruited as boy orderlies in Madhya Pradesh and
Chhattisgarh over the years, the State government of Chhattisgarh on a complaint
filed by Asian Centre for Human Rights before the National Commission for Protection
of Child Rights admitted in June 2011 that there are approximately 300 boyorderlies employed in the state police force at present and seven of them were
posted with 4th Battalion of Chhattisgarh Police at Mana in Raipur. These children are
not only denied the right to education but deployed with the forces who are engaged
in counter insurgency. asserted Asian Centre for Human Rights.
Article 4 of the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child on
the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict states that armed opposition groups
should not, under any circumstance, recruit or use in hostilities persons under the age
of 18 years and the government shall take all feasible measures to prevent such
recruitment and use, including the adoption of legal measures necessary to prohibit
and criminalize such practices.
The Government of India, however, in its first report of 2011 stated that there is no
recruitment of child soldiers by the armed groups as India does not face either
international or non-international armed conflict situations.
This position of the Government of India is not only bizarre but also a case where the
Government is actually defending the records of the armed groups on recruitment of
child soldiers before the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. India effectively
protected the officially designated terror groups from condemnation of the UN
Committee on the Rights of the Child for the recruitment of child soldiers, a war
crime under the international law.- further stated Mr Chakma.
Asian Centre for Human Rights urged the Government of India to inquire as to why the
recruitment of child soldiers by the officially designated terror groups was concealed
from the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and take appropriate actions
against the officials who are effectively ended up whitewashing the records of the
armed groups on the recruitment of child soldiers.
India as a nation is facing a new problem concerning its children- emergence
of children as soldiers in strife -torn states of Chattisgarh, Jharkhand,
AndhraPradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Manipur, Nagaland and Assam. They
are getting drawn into fighting both with rebel groups as well as security
forces. What was considered a problem in African countries of Sudan, Sierra

Leone and other countries like Sri Lanka and Nepal has become a reality for
India too.

Child Soldiers of India

According to human right activists the actual number of children recruited
by state or non state groups as soldiers is not as obvious as in other
countries but we know there is an increasing number of children being
drawn into active combat.These children exposed to war and conflict are
one of the most vulnerable groups often forced to witness or perpetrate
combat atrocities. They are scarred for life, their childhood shattered.
A UNICEF estimate says about 2.50 lakhs children have been recruited as
soldiers in various capacities worldwide. In India no such studies have been
done to document the life of these child soldiers. The main reasons the

children take to guns being extreme poverty and they see rebels leading
well-off lives. To them joining the rebels seems like an opportunity to get
out of their misery. When the child soldier learns the tricks of the trade and
starts getting money, the parents also enjoy a better life style. While the
government doesn't give enough support and compensation for victims,
rebel groups step in to act as guardians.
According to the government officials there is no government policy or
official guideline about what to do with child soldiers picked up during raids
or encounters. Though they are returned to their parents there is no
guarantee they will not be picked up by the rebels again. There is no
direction for their rehabilitation.
The NGO workers believe the government needs to network with village
bodies and activists for holistic development that reaches the interiors.
Development of traditional skills and emphasis on natural resource
management is essential with improved infrastructure like roads etc.

1. Child soldiers are any children under the age of 18 who are recruited by a state or non-state
armed group and used as fighters, cooks, suicide bombers, human shields, messengers, spies, or
for sexual purposes.
2. In the last 13 years, the use of child soldiers has spread to almost every region of the world
and every armed conflict. Though an exact number is impossible to define, thousands of child
soldiers are illegally serving in armed conflict around the world.

3. Some children are under the age of 10 when they are forced to serve.
4. Two-thirds of states confirm that under-18 enrollment should be banned to prohibit forced
child soldiers, as well as 16- and 17-year-old armed force volunteers.
5. Children who are poor, displaced from their families, have limited access to education, or live
in a combat zone are more likely to be forcibly recruited.
6. Children who are not forced to be soldiers volunteer themselves because they feel societal
pressure and are under the impression that volunteering will provide a form of income, food, or
security, and willingly join the group.
7. In the last 2 years, 20 states have been reported to have child soldiers in government,
government-affiliated, and non-state armed groups. Additionally, 40 states still have minimum
age recruitment requirements under 18 years.
8. Girls make up an estimated 10 to 30 percent of child soldiers used for fighting and other
purposes. They are especially vulnerable when it comes to sexual violence.
9. The following countries have reported use of child soldiers since 2011: Afghanistan,
Colombia, India, Iraq, Israel, Libya, Mali, Pakistan, Thailand, Sudan, Syria, Yemen, and more.
10. Despite a government agreement in the District of Chad to demobilize the recruitment of
child soldiers, there were between 7,000 and 10,000 children under 18 serving in combat and
fulfilling other purposes in 2007.
11. The recruitment of child soldiers breaks several human rights laws. Children who have
committed crimes as soldiers are looked upon more leniently, crimes committed voluntarily are
subject to justice under the international juvenile justice standards.