After 12 years, the United Nations has dropped India from its annual report on the impact of armed conflict on children
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that this was done in view of the improved measures taken by the Central government to better protect the well-being of the children. The report was released on June 5.
According to the Ministry of Women and Child Development, India had been mentioned in the report of the Secretary-General since 2010 along with countries and regions such as Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Lake Chad basin, Nigeria, Pakistan and the Philippines.
Last year, while referring to India in the report, Guterres had mentioned the “increased number of violations against children verified in Jammu and Kashmir”, and had called upon the Indian government to strengthen the protection of children in the Union Territory.
In the latest report, the Secretary-General called upon India to implement the remaining measures identified in consultation with his special representative and the United Nations.
These include training armed and security forces on child protection, prohibition of the use of lethal and non-lethal force on children, ending the use of pellet guns and ensuring that children are detained as a last resort and for the shortest period of time.
He also suggested the full implementation of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.
The Ministry of Women and Child Development on Wednesday said that it was consistently making efforts to exclude India from the annual report.
It said that the government’s engagement with the Special Representative of the Secretary-General sped up after an inter-ministerial meeting in November 2021.
“It led to an agreement to appoint a national focal point to identify priority national interventions to enhance protection of children, a joint technical mission to hold inter-ministerial, technical-level meetings with the UN to identify areas of enhanced cooperation for child protection,” the ministry added.
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