CHILDREN: The Victims of War

Children: The victims of War! Yes, you heard it right or can we say you read it right. Good day and Assalamu alaikum everyone! This article is the first one in Exploiting Innocence of Children- A series. Today we will be looking into the impacts of war on children, especially the psychological and physiological impacts.

Recent events around the world especially in Palestine, Afghanistan, Columbia, Yemen, and in many more places have led to the distress of people all around the world! Everyone is and are still going through tough times. But, the group of people who are often overlooked is???? Yes, you guessed it right, Children!

As we all know that Children are the future leaders of this world or considered as the “Beacons of light”, but their voices are usually unheard during times of trouble especially during war. From the beginning of time, mankind has been familiar with the concept of war. The fight for power and wealth .But it always comes at the cost of many innocent lives.

According to APA (American Psychological Association), an estimated 300,000 children in more than 80 countries are involved in wars and armed conflicts carrying guns, fighting, serving as spies, etc. The report was released in June by the London-based International Coalition to prevent the utilization of Children as soldiers. The report included the woeful stories of the children who were the victims of the war and other statistical reports which shed light on how 85 to 95 percent of those harmed or killed by modern armed conflict are civilians. Of those, about 50 percent are children. And according to UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund), currently, there are over two million child refugees fleeing from Syria and over 870,000 refugees from Somalia. All these reports and articles don’t do justice to the amount of misery these children are going through

And at what cost?

Why do they have to go through all of this?

Ponder on that question as we move on to the next part.

So now as we have caught up with the statistics , let’s get into the main topic which is the impact of war on children. There are numerous potential risk factors of war on children.

First, let’s scrutinize the Physical aspect. The severe impacts because of direct exposure to violence are death , injury, sexual violence etc.

Though less severe , other basic necessities like education, healthcare, etc. are unmet because of war. By being exposed to violence like bombings and combats, innocent children are killed during conflicts . Due to this, there's an additional rise in sexual violence towards children, especially girls.

According to a report more than 20,000 Muslim girls and women have been victims of sexual violence in Bosnia since 1992. These kinds of sorrowful reports and incidents don’t get enough exposure like celebrity news, sports news etc. But hey, let’s not blame others now, so moving on...

Now let’s discuss the basic unmet needs of children. War disrupts the supply of necessities to children and their families like food, water, shelter, health services, and education. As most of us know lack of access to these basic needs may deprive children of their physical, social-emotional, and psychological development. According to an article by The Guardian, almost 50 million children and young people living in conflict areas are out of school, more than half of the primary age, and the sad part is the numbers are increasing. In a report released by UNESCO and the NGO Save the Children, the ongoing civil war in Syria has contributed to the sharp increase in reported incidents of children being stopped from accessing education, physically attacked for trying to go to school or having their school bombed, etc. In the case of food and shelter, according to a report, in countries across Africa and the Middle East, over 2.5 million children are suffering from severe acute malnutrition. These are some of the physical impacts of war. Yep, these are some of the impacts, not all of them. So onto the next important part…

We hope the above passages gave an idea of the physical impact of war. Now let’s get into the psychological aspect. According to researchers, Early childhood experience accounts for a large part of human brain development. From this we can understand that environment and surroundings play a huge role in the development of a child. In that sense, children in armed conflict zones may be more susceptible to mental problems such as anxiety and depression, as well as physiological problems in the immune system and central nervous systems. According to a report by UNICEF, Children in war-zones witness and experience horrendous violent activities which may lead to development of psychological disorders such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Also, study shows that 41 percent of Palestinian children from Gaza suffered from PTSD. Over all the effects of war has a 10 to 90 percent variation in terms of people developing PTSD, depression and behavioural problems.

Along with all these physiological and psychological problems, the children who were forced to become child soldiers are also the victims of stigmatization and discrimination in the community. This leads to them not getting the medical and psychological care they need and require.

Alas, we are close to the end. We are now well aware of the impact of war on children and the way it affects them s. However what will we do with all this information? That’s the important part. As people say knowledge is power and I personally think it’s true. But, knowledge is only power after you implement it and make use of it. These children all over the world are going through misery and trouble – the kind that we can’t imagine. These will have a permanent impact on their lives. Now, what can we do?

Firstly , we need to create awareness and educate people regarding this issue Next, showing them that we care and stand by them is also important.

I hope everybody found this article insightful and useful and let us all hope for a better future. Thank You!

Author: Ummul Waheedha, Associate, GIO Chennai

Date: 17th June, 2021