United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has excluded India from his yearly report on the effects of armed conflict on children after learning of India’s efforts to protect children.

Since 2010, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, the Lake Chad Basin, Nigeria, Pakistan, and the Philippines had all been listed in the study along with India.

Initially, reports of the recruitment of young boys by armed organizations in Jammu and Kashmir and the detention of boys by the security forces on suspicion of connection with armed groups led to India’s inclusion on the list.

In his last report, Guterres expressed appreciation for the Indian government’s cooperation with his special representative, which he said would result in the country being taken off the list of countries to be concerned about.

Guterres revealed that India has been left out of his most recent report on children and armed conflict in 2023 as a result of the steps the government has done to protect children. In addition, he noted that the United Nations had taken part in a workshop that the Indian government had sponsored in Jammu and Kashmir in November 2022.

India has been cooperating closely with the UN for the past two years, according to Virginia Gamba, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, showing a commitment to prevention and the construction of long-lasting safeguards for children.

Globally, children continue to be disproportionately impacted by armed conflict, according to Guterres’ annual report on children and armed conflict.

The United Nations verified 27,180 grave violations in 2022, of which 24,300 were committed that year and 2,880 were committed previously but were only discovered in 2022.

18,890 children were impacted by these infractions across 24 scenarios and 1 regional monitoring arrangement.

The most frequent infractions were listed in the report as kidnapping, confinement, recruitment and usage of youngsters, and mutilation.

With Inputs from agencies