Violence-affected Children Continue to be Neglected in Kandhamal

ICC Note

Hindu radicals killed 100 Christians and forced 55,000 Christians to leave their homes in 2008 anti-Christian violence in the Kandhamal district of Orissa, India. Christian children are still suffering from the effects of the 2008 violence.

By Dibin Samuel

07/29/2011 India (Christian Today)-Children continue to be neglected and deprived of education, even three years after the violence in Kandhamal.

According to child rights activist Mahendra Parida, thousands of children still live in disheartening conditions with lack of support and concern from the government.

 After the violence in 2008, says Panda, children were forced to drop out of schools and began flooding into labour markets.

 On Wednesday, Panda submitted his findings at a state-level public hearing by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR).

In that regard, he presented a database of 1,500 riot-hit children which he had earlier submitted to the NCPCR and the State Women and Child Welfare Department. However, he alleged that no special measures were taken to address the children’s needs.

The horrific incidents of violence in Kandhamal had great negative impact on the lives of children with many thousands still to come out of the trauma, Panda said.

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Panda also expressed grave concern over the trafficking of Kandhamal children. The trafficking of teenage girls and unmarried young women increased in the aftermath of violence.

Out of the total affected people in the violence, almost 36 percent were below 18 years. Panda submitted his findings on Wednesday after surveying about thousand families in different parts of Kandhamal.

 Earlier, after an investigation, the NCPCR had recommended the state government to provide schoolchildren with nutritious and hygienic food, safe drinking water, recreation facilities and textbooks free of cost.

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Kandhamal district was the epicenter for anti-Christian violence from August to October 2008 when hundreds of churches were burnt and thousands were forced to flee their homes by rampaging mobs.

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