Armed groups using children to fight: Manipur rights bodies

Representational image only. File

GUWAHATI

The Manipur Commission for Protection of Child Rights (MCPCR) and other rights bodies in the State have expressed concern over reports of armed groups using children as fighters in the ongoing ethnic conflict.

The conflict between the Kuki-Zo and Meitei communities in the State since May 2023 has claimed more than 250 lives and displaced 60,000 people.

“Conventional and social media reports say certain communities are engaging in the recruitment of children to be their frontline fighters in violation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) norms, which prohibit recruiting or using child soldiers in conflicts,” MCPCR chairperson Keisham Pradipkumar told journalists in the State’s capital Imphal on Wednesday (January 30, 2025).

Apart from the MCPCR, representatives of the Manipur Human Rights Commission and Manipur State Commission for Women appealed to the armed groups and communities to refrain from using child soldiers in the conflict.

“We also urge government agencies, including the police, to be alert in dealing with such cases,” Mr. Pradipkumar said, advising Manipur’s Bharatiya Janata Party-led government to open two residential schools in every district for the ethnic violence-displaced children.

“Children comprise a major chunk of the internally displaced people. Accommodating them in residential schools will help address the issue of their transportation (to and from the relief camps),” he said. The commissions also flagged cases of suicides by the displaced people.

“There have been a lot of suicide cases, some involving women who have been affected by the conflict the most. A few lost their husbands to become the sole breadwinner of their families. The government should develop skills training facilities for the displaced women so they can earn a livelihood,” Mr. Pradipkumar said.

Manipur has been quiet over the past few weeks but remains ethnically divided. The Meitei-majority Imphal Valley is out of bounds for the Kuki-Zo people while the Meiteis cannot go to the peripheral hills dominated by the Kuki-Zo people.