Barely days after the United Nations secretary general Antonio Guterres released the report on Naxalites recruiting children in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh to fight security forces, DIG Anti-Naxal Operation of Chhattisgarh in India raised questions on the authenticity of the report.
Quashing the tall claims of report – ‘Children in Armed Conflict’ – Sundarraj P, DIG Anti-Naxal Operation of Chhattisgarh said on Tuesday that naxals have only revealed to have recruited very less children in their outfit since last 4-5 years. Speaking to the media he said, “Naxals revealed that very few children joined them in last 4-5 years.”
However he agreed that naxals are master in brainwashing children and use them as messengers, in activating IEDs and also combat security forces. Sundarraj said, “Naxals brainwash children to recruit them. They use them to alert naxals, activate IEDs & combat security forces.” Adding further that the administration is trying their best to send these small children back to school under the community outreach program.
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Another senior official from CRPF too Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar had said earlier that naxals recruiting the children – aged between 16-18 years – in their ‘baal dastas’ or child soldiers cadre, is not a new phenomenon. He had agreed the these children were earlier recruited only as informers, carriers or for technical jobs, but the drop in strength of the outfit some are being used for fighting security forces as ‘shields’, as police do not shoot children. The senior official even had agreed that due to the fear factor, sometimes families even families are forced to gift one child for the ’cause’. But the official had denied the report of mass recruitment of child soldiers.
In the official report, published by the Secretary General last week, India was among in the list of 20 counties, along with Syria, Afghanistan, Yemen, Philippines and Nigeria where fringe outfits are recruiting children as soldiers. Adding that Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand rank among the top in the category. However, there was no mention on the number of recruitments. But roughly, UN expects that more than 10,000 children were killed or injured in conflicts in 2017 across the globe, while over 8,000 were used as combatants.
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