United Nations, June 25 (IANS) India has called for action against those who target schools and children, describing the plight of children caught in conflict zones as “a damning verdict on humanity’s collective failure”.
Participating in a Security Council debate on Wednesday (local time) on children and armed conflicts, India’s Permanent Representative to the UN, P. Harish, said, “Protection (of children and schools) without accountability is incomplete. Those who target schools and children with impunity must be held to account”.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s report on children and armed conflict showed that “attacks on schools rose by a staggering 44 per cent in a single year (2025)”, he said.
“Nearly 473 million children — more than one in six globally — live in or are fleeing conflict zones, and more than 85 million among them have no access to education whatsoever,” he pointed out.
“These figures are a damning verdict on humanity’s collective failure to translate commitments into reality on the ground,” he said.
India’s digital platform for school education — DIKSHA (Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing) — can be a model for educating children in conflict zones or who have been displaced, Harish said.
He said DIKSHA has “democratised access to quality learning through interactive content and AI-powered tools across multiple languages”.
“Our experience has convinced us that access to digital learning can be the bridge that helps children access education during conflicts,” he said.
Because India believes that education is essential for “those bearing the heaviest burden of war”, it has made sustained investments in education for refugees and displaced communities from across its neighbourhood, Harish said.
India has “invested in rebuilding education infrastructure, including the construction of schools and vocational training centres, in different countries, including our neighbourhood,” he added.
“Continuity of learning is among the most powerful tools for resilience and recovery,” he said.
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Executive Director Catherine Russell warned about drones, autonomous and remotely operated systems and AI-supported targeting systems making an already dangerous situation for children and schools worse.
“As the nature of warfare evolves, our commitment to protecting children must remain steadfast,” she said.
Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Vanessa Frazier, said last year was the worst in at least 30 years for serious violations against children.
In 2025, the UN verified 38,558 grave violations against children — affecting 24,174 children — the highest since her office’s mandate 30 years ago to produce the annual report on children and armed conflicts, she said.
Most of the verified violations in 2025 were in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, Myanmar and Somalia, Frazier said.
(Arul Louis can be contacted at arul.l@ians.in)
–IANS
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