Children, War and Education - Essay Example

This leads them into an intense mental trauma. 3. Children used as terrorists/soldiers:The scene grows even more gruesome when children are made a part of these wars. Their small hands are trained to hold and control the agents of deaths deadly weapons and their vulnerable minds are inculcated with norms of the terror culture where ruthless massacres are a way of life. Be it the Hamas in Gaza, the Taliban in Afghanisthan or the LTTE in Sri Lanka they extensively use children as terrorists."assessments by the Sri Lankan Directorate of Military Intelligence have estimated that as much as 60 per cent of the LTTE's fighters were below 18.

"(SOUTH ASIA TERRORISM PORTAL) and "LTTE terrorists used a 13 year old child suicide bomber against the advancing 55 Division troops in Chalai "( Thilakaratne 2009)The conditions are no different in Jammu and Kashmir where children are used as "terror tools". They are even trained in throwing grenades and planting IEDs.( GUPTA 2005).This affects a child's(terrorist) psychology in a very dangerous manner sometimes making it impossible to help them lead a normal life even after they have been freed/rescued.

Their experience with terror creates a kind of crisis in their life - it's a crisis of life purpose and direction. Children Participation in armed conflicts, even voluntarily, is an offence as per the Geneva Convention (1948), its two amendments (1997), and as per Article 38 of the UN Convention on Rights of the Child. But one can definitely not expect the terrorist groups to abide by these laws. Even in cases where terrorist outfits were warned against the use of children or even when the terrorist groups promise not to use children (as in case of LTTE), there are hardly any productive or positive results.4. Loss of children's education:In conditions like these it's not difficult to imagine what must be happening to the education of children.

A country's civilian population is under a condition of constant stress when there is a war going on at the borders of the country and the education of children is often disturbed due to falling attendance as a result of fear, shutting down of schools due to govt. orders concerning safety or other such reasons. And the conditions worsen in countries where there are no defined battle fields and the civilian areas are frequently attacked. Terrorist attack on schools causes a great damage; and this damage is multidimensional.

Not only is the property damaged but also many lives are lost and the entire education system completely disrupted and sometimes even uprooted. Attacking schools severs several purposes for the terrorist organisations:A. Schools are soft targets and can be attacked comparatively easily.(Ervin 2006)B. Attack on