Pope Francis, who turned 88 this week, did not surprise his friends but may have made many world leaders to squirm in discomfiture when he attended the inauguration of the Vatican’s Nativity tableau. Mary, the Virgin, was serene as usual, and Joseph looked older than he may have been, but that is how he is shown by artists over the two millennia, and across the world in millions of Cribs decorated for Christmas next week.
But the New-born was no blue-eyed infant of popular Christmas cards, or even a brown baby as Asian and African artistes of the Twentieth century, our own Jamini Roy among them, painted him on celebratory canvas.
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Baby Jesus was lying in the crib on a keffiyeh, traditional scarf used by Palestinians as a head dress, and now their national symbol.
From his wheelchair, the Supreme Head of the Catholic Church called on believers to remember the brothers and sisters, who, right there in Bethlehem and in other parts of the world, are suffering from the tragedy of war. “Enough war, enough violence!”, said the Pope, as he lamented the blooming business in weapons of war.
[Vatican News said the keffiyeh-draped cradle, which will be displayed in the Paul VI Hall, is one of a series of nativity scenes collectively titled “Nativity of Bethlehem 2024,” designed by artists Johny Andonia and Faten Nastas Mitwasi, both Palestinians from Bethlehem.]
The Pope’s concern is for all children at risk from all forms of violence.
India is no exception to this. In 2024 alone, children have been killed or wounded in the violence in Manipur, in para-military action in Chhattisgarh, and in horrid incidents of rape and murder from many other parts of the country.
For the most, these are children born in the Tribal and Dalit communities, and many of them are girls ranging from infants to others in their teens, prone to violence, abuse and exploitation.
The wide range of laws to protect faces a serious challenge in implementation, from an absence of will to “inadequate human resource capacity on the ground”, as it is called in officialese. No place is safe – home, school, childcare institutions, work and in the community. The perpetrators are relatives, custodians, officials, and perhaps more often than strangers
The National Crime Reports Bureau (NCRB) data from 2020 report a rise in sexual crimes against children.
In 2020, the maximum number of cases involved kidnapping and abduction (42.6%), followed by sexual crimes, including rape, at 38.8%.
No real data is available on child victims of conflict zones in India, specially in Kashmir, Manipur and other states of the northeast, and the vast Adivasi swath of India from Rajasthan and Gujarat in the west to Jharkhand and Orissa in the east.
Even otherwise, it is not easy for us in India as a country to really understand the situation of children facing a war situation in any other place in the world. Or even in the neighbourhood – Bangladesh in 1971, the year of its liberation, or in the northern Tamil districts of Sri Lanka for three decades not too long ago. Those were genocides too.
A genocide is taking place right before our eyes in Gaza in Palestine. A new study of children living through the bombings on has found that 96% of them feel that their death is imminent and almost half want to die because of the trauma they have been through.
The Gaza-based NGO also found that 92% of the children in the survey were “not accepting of reality”, 79% suffer from nightmares and 73% exhibit symptoms of aggression.
Helen Pattinson, chief executive of War Child UK, says Gaza is one of the most horrifying places in the world to be a child. “Alongside the levelling of hospitals, schools and homes, a trail of psychological destruction has caused wounds unseen but no less destructive on children who hold no responsibility for this war.”
“Violence, fear, displacement, hunger, loss and for 16,891 children in Gaza, death. These children are not numbers, they have a story, parents who loved them, grandparents who spoiled them and siblings who played with them. Their faces are now a memory etched in the hearts and minds of those who love them”, says another report.
UNICEF estimates that between 2008 and 2022, over 2,000 children were killed in Gaza due to conflict. In the bombings in the last 14 months or so, an estimated 44% of the death toll of more than 44,000 persons could be children. That adds up to a terrifying high number. Approximately 1 in 5 children in Gaza have experienced some form of violence or abuse, says UNICEF.
The 14 months of intense bombardment, the displacement and the blockade that restricts freedom of movement have intensified trauma. International relief and welfare agencies say almost every of the 12 lakh Palestinian are said to need mental health support.
The latest report says the psychological toll on children was severe, with high levels of stress manifested in symptoms such as fear, anxiety, sleep disturbances, nightmares, nail biting, difficulty concentrating and social withdrawal.
“Children have witnessed the bombing of their homes and schools, experienced the loss of loved ones, and have been displaced or separated from their families while fleeing for safety.”
About 19 lakh Palestinians in Gaza, approximately 90% of the territory’s total population, have been displaced, many several times. Half of that number are children who have lost their home and been forced to flee their neighbourhoods.
An estimated 17,000 children in Gaza are unaccompanied, separated from their parents, although the study notes the real number may be much higher. “Being separated from their families places these children at a heightened risk of exploitation, abuse and other serious violations of their rights.”
For these children, the war’s wounds could be lifelong. “As a result of such exposure, children develop responses that may persist long after the war has ceased, profoundly affecting their daily lives,” it adds.
The sense of being doomed has become pervasive. Almost all the children (96%) felt their death was imminent, and 49% wished to die.
That is a terrible information on Christmas eve. A blow to our collective conscience.
(John Dayal is an author, editor, occasional documentary film maker and activist)
