At UNSC, India flags issue of children being recruited for terrorism-related activities

Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said during an open debate on Children and Armed Conflict in the UN Security Council that there is a need for a more coordinated approach in implementing the child protection and counter terrorism agendas

Voicing concern over an increasing number of children being recruited by the terror groups for terrorism-related activities, India on Monday called for a more coordinated approach in implementing the child protection and counter terrorism agendas. "We are witnessing a dangerous and worrying trend in global terrorism and that is an increase in the number of children that are being recruited and involved in terrorism-related activities," Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said during an open debate on Children and Armed Conflict in the UN Security Council. Noting that the terror groups take advantage of the fact that children are the most susceptible to manipulation, he said that school closures due to the pandemic have provided an even greater opportunity to these terrorist groups to target children, including through online avenues, for radicalisation and indoctrination in violent extremist ideologies.