Children in Conflict - Bengal Violence

 

 

What Nelson Mandela said decades ago, is finding an unfortunate reflection in today’s Bengal. While the West Bengal post poll violence has been commented upon in great detail for all its complexities, one dimension which has escaped sufficient attention and discussion is the effect that the post-poll violence is having on the children there, and the failure of the State to address the same.

 

 

By all indications so far, there is a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population, including women and children, in the State of West Bengal. Normally only those in high positions of authority representing the State or its instrumentalities are involved in the planning or waging of such widespread attack on civilian population. Till the time of writing, normalcy has not returned to the State, and the Calcutta High Court is still hearing a batch of Writ Petitions, finding ways and means to ensure that displaced people are sent back home safely.

 

In West Bengal, in the prevailing circumstances, apparently there is no State Protection available to the child victims and survivors in this widespread and systematic violence, because the persecutory agent is believed to be the State itself. The question of state protection to children is moot here, and unfortunately, the Children are the biggest casualty in this whole affair. There is a climate of impunity prevailing today in the State of West Bengal and there is no region where there is no risk of a well-founded fear of violence against the Children, post the declaration of elections results on 02.05.2021.

The inaction of State Police speaks volumes of mala-fide on their part and proves that they are complicit. These charges assume substance and credibility, as the the nodal body of Child Rights in the Country, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), under the leadership of Sh. Priyank Kanoongo, has taken cognizance in several of these matters, and has sent several notices to erring police officials in West Bengal, seeking specific responses from them, including asking for ATRs, w.r.t. the allegations of violence against children. NCPCR, as we all know, is a body constituted under the provisions of the Commission for Protection of Child Rights (CPCR) Act, 2005, for protection of child Rights and other related matters. It is the mandate of the NCPCR to inquire into complaints, or act suo motu, in cases of violation of child rights.

 

 

Children living in highly politicized communities or those where violence is organized or commonplace, may also be vulnerable to recruitment by armed groups, which obviously has profound physical, psychological, social and economic impacts on the lives of Children. Forced evictions during internal conflict or generalized violence can have a serious impact upon children, such as in the case of the State of West Bengal. It is all these apprehensions, which must have prompted the NCPCR to take cognizance in these matters.

 

 

NCPCR has taken cognizance even with regard to conditions of children in camps in Assam, which were set up to accommodate the influx of people coming from West Bengal. It has issued two notices to the District Magistrate & Deputy Commissioner, Dhubri District, Assam and another was sent to the District Magistrate & Deputy Commissioner, Kokrajhar, Assam. The NCPCR requested them to immediately visit the camps, as well as any other such place where these children are residing, and to ascertain their exact numbers and other associated facts. It was also requested that the statements of all these children be recorded by child welfare police officers of the district (CWPO) and the same may be submitted to the Commission for necessary actions. It was further requested by NCPCR that the local police may register zero FIR in all such cases where atrocities against these children have been reported and the said investigations be completed within a stipulated time period.

 

 

The steps taken by the NCPCR under the leadership of its Chairperson Shri Priyank Kanoongo ji are bold and historical. Children are the future of New India and NCPCR has, true to its legal mandate, acted as the saviour of children in Bengal and Assam. One sincerely hopes that NCPCR takes all the permissible steps under the law and ensures full protection and justice for the child victims, whether inside or outside courts.

There are innumerable examples from the political history of our country when parties and leaders, standing at extreme poles of political divide, have shed their difference on issues of national interest or social importance. Whatever be the reality of Bengal today, if the political parties do not bury their difference in the interest of the children of the State, and the State in particular does not lead the way in this, then a whole generation of children may be impacted, and the posterity will never forgive us for that. Incumbent Chief Minister of West Bengal, Ms. Mamta Banerjee has on several occasions, paid public tribute to Nelson Mandela. In a tweet of July 18, 2016, she wrote “paying homage to Nelson Mandela on his birthday. Let us remember and always be inspired by his years of struggle.” Madam Chief Minister, we beseech to just follow your own words, if you choose to ignore all other voices, and save children of Bengal.

 

 

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