Today the children’s day is being celebrated all over India but in Kashmir children traumatized by the dance of death and destruction for last thirty years have nothing to celebrate. While the children in other states of the country would be happy to count the achievements in educations, the children in Kashmir would find themselves in shock to count the deaths of youth killed in street protests during last two years. The children in Kashmir are concerned about the never ending conflict that takes away smiles from their faces and less about the education which should have been declared a priority sectors by the Jammu & Kashmir government long back. The blame for inability to declare education a priority sector lies on the government but not the people of Kashmir. Popular governments come and go but without addressing the crisis of fear psychosis and uncertainty hitting the educational of children of all ages. In the contemporary world human resources development is over and above the economic and natural resources in the list of priority sectors but in Jammu & Kashmir government is yet to declare education a priority sector. Quality education if imparted to children can change the course of every sphere of public life in any state where the government tends to keep focus on education. While the children in the other parts of the country enjoy the privilege of being children, the children of Kashmir have been of the right to even daily classroom teaching in schools for one reason or the other. Now a days juvenile justice in Jammu & Kashmir is debate of greater concern for the people who are part of judiciary and rights activists within and outside the state. Ironically the reports of children being jailed and treated as adult criminals are often hitting the headlines of newspapers both within and outside the state.
Though some measures have been taken to strengthen the juvenile justice delivery system in the state but more stringent measures are required to bring the children out from the trauma that has ruined them physically, mentally and psychologically in recent years.
With no proper system of public accountability in place, unregistered instances of detention and torture faced by the children are attracting huge criticism of the law enforcement agencies from people of all shades of opinion. The ill treatment of children in the valley has ruined them physically, mentally and psychologically in recent years. The children of the valley of Kashmir feel depressed, fettered and imprisoned because of the unexplained doubts and fears. A stronger juvenile justice delivery system is the only remedial measure which would help the government to take the children out from the trauma of the incidents that have depressed them and ruined their educational careers in recent years. Though some measures have been taken to strengthen the juvenile justice delivery system in the state but more stringent measures are required to bring the children out from the trauma that has ruined them physically, mentally and psychologically in recent years.
