These days, quite frequently I see children’s stories in various news sources from around the world. The stories are not the usual “happily lived ever after” stories; they are about children in dire straits. They are about children’s plight, their meagre existence and their trials and tribulations around the world.
I see maltreated and abandoned children in war-torn countries like Darfur, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, and Syria. I see them in the slums of Mumbai, in the shantytowns of Rio and Cambodia, in the housing projects in the Americas, and among the natives and aboriginals of the world. They’re everywhere, all over the world: orphans, abandoned and homeless ones toiling in sweltering carpet mills, unsafe mines, grimy factories, harsh farming fields, and forced into sex trade and crime.
They are children with HIV/AIDS or orphaned by it, and children of wars. They are abused, impoverished, and malnourished children with no future. They are pawns in the hands of criminal organisations: militias recruit them to fight wars, gangsters and slumlords seek them out to expand their criminal activities and illicit drug trade. They are constantly exposed to physical, sexual and emotional violence as they are lured into the sex trade and trafficked across borders by malevolent adults. A recent news article shed shocking light on how women and children are captured, and sold by extremists as sex slaves in parts of Iraq and Syria. The images of these children are disturbing. They are all about hardship, sickness, poverty, hopelessness, desperation, desolation, wanton abuse and callous disrespect. Their innocent faces tell stories of pain and suffering. Their bodies bear battle scars. Their eyes are saddened with emotional trauma. Their stories are real and very moving.
In spite of improvements made in addressing children’s issues by governments and NGOs, violence against children continues in many forms. According to a Unicef report, over 21,000 children die every day around the world. That is about 14 children every minute. Some 7.6 million have died before they reached their fifth birthday, and two million children below 15 years old are living with HIV (based on 2010 reports).
Statistics from the theatres of armed conflicts are even more overwhelming and alarming. Over two million children killed in armed conflicts, and six million disabled by armed conflicts. Additionally, over 250,000 children are exploited as child soldiers. Landmines claim the lives and well-being of an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 children each year. Unicef data paint the picture of a violent society. A report, A Statistical Snapshot of Violence Against Adolescent Girls (Unicef, October 2014), finds that somewhere in the world an adolescent girl dies every 10 minutes due to violence. Another UN report (Levels & Trends in Child Mortality Report, 2014) highlights the tragic dimensions of neonatal deaths; two-thirds of such deaths occur “in just 10 countries, with India accounting for more than a quarter and Nigeria for about a tenth”.
Children suffer the most when adults engage in disastrous activities. Children suffer the most when adults neglect them, and force them into adult things. They are gullible orphans, and runaways with no parents to look after them, no community to support them, and no government to protect them as everyone ignores their plight.
According to UN, “Violence against children is never justifiable. Nor is it inevitable. If its underlying causes are identified and addressed, violence against children is entirely preventable.” But, meanwhile many more children will die a violent death, many more will get sick, maimed, and disfigured, and many will be captured, tortured, traded and abandoned. These children would become adults and live happily ever after if we choose to stop violence against children, eradicate poverty, prevent diseases, and not engage in wars. I wish the world leaders will, one day, someday, step up to the plate, and stand together to feed, shelter, and protect these destitute and forsaken young ones, our future generation. However, knowing our history, it is a wishful dream. If only I had a magic wand; I dream frequently.
