India dropped from United Nations report on children in armed conflict

India was being mentioned in the report since 2010 along with other countries such as Burkina Faso, Cameroon and Pakistan.

India now no longer figures in the United Nations General Assembly Security Council Children and Armed Conflict Report of the Secretary-General, the Centre said on Wednesday.

The women and child development ministry, in a release, said that India was being mentioned in the report since 2010 along with other countries such as Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Lake Chad basin, Nigeria, Pakistan, and the Philippines for alleged recruitment and use of boys by armed groups in Jammu and Kashmir, for detainment of boys by Indian security forces in J&K for their alleged association with armed groups, or, for children killed and maimed by Indian security forces, including by the use of pellets.

The ministry, in a release said, that it has been trying to get India’s name off the list and to this end, in November 2021 held an inter ministerial meeting with the Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG).

WCD secretary Indevar Pandey, officials from the Ministry of External Affairs, Permanent Mission of India at New York, Virginia Gamba, Special representative of the Secretary-General for Children and UN officials were present at the meeting held in Delhi.

“It led to an agreement to appoint a national focal point to identify priority national interventions to enhance protection of children, joint technical mission to hold inter-ministerial, technical-level meetings with the UN to identify areas of enhanced cooperation for child protection,” the ministry said, adding that a road map for cooperation and collaboration on child protection issues was developed by the Ministry.

The technical team of the office of the SRSG visited India in July last year, which was followed by a workshop on strengthening child protection held in Jammu & Kashmir in November by the WCD Ministry with the MHA, and the J&K government, with the participation of the United Nations. “All statutory service delivery structures like the Child Welfare Committee and Juvenile Justice Boards under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2015 have been established,” the ministry said.