Smouldering Embers The Voices of Children in Uttar Pradesh

“…The trauma is comparable to PTSD, given that his family has also testified to his not being able to sleep at night for fear of nightmares of the police beating him.”

– Naomi Barton for The Wire, describing the reality of one child victim subject to detainment, criminalization, and custodial torture by the police of Uttar Pradesh.

Historically, in times of social conflicts, children are invisibilised and forgotten. Committed to amplifying the voices of children, HAQ: Centre for Child Rights, in collaboration with Quill Foundation and Citizens Against Hate, sent fact finding teams to four districts in Uttar Pradesh – Bijnor, Muzaffarnagar, Firozabad and Sambhal – that, as per media reports and activist networks, had witnessed the maximum child rights abuses. Our fact-finding has confirmed that around forty-seven children were detained in December, 2019, criminalised and intimidated, and many subjected to custodial torture by the police force of UP.

Two children sustained bullet injuries in Lucknow. An eight-year-old was killed in Varanasi during a stampede caused by the excessive use of force by the police on anti-CAA protestors. The parents of the eight year old were then forced to conduct a high security burial of their child within an hour of the body’s return.

The Chief Minister of UP, Yogi Adityanath, had threatened “badla (revenge)” against the citizens of his state who had dared to protest against the communal tenor of the Citizenship Amendment Act passed by the Central Government on 12th December, 2019. The “badla” appears to have lashed the sharp edge of its sword against the children of Uttar Pradesh. Drawing from the final report, “Brutalising Innocence: Detention, Torture, and Criminalisation of Minors by UP Police to Quell Anti-CAA Protests” published by the fact finding organisations, it is in the voices of these children and their families that this article roots itself.

To begin with, children were suddenly and rapidly rounded off by the UP police on the claim that they were participating in violent protests. Both, Juvenile Justice Act, 2015, and the rules made by the Centre and UP state Further, even in the case of heinous offences, apprehension is allowed only if it is in the best interests of the child. In Muzaffarnagar FIRs were lodged against four children who were released after twelve days of detention for offences that do not qualify as heinous offences. Five out of the six minors in Sambhal told the team that they were all detained in jail for close to or more than 40 days along with adult detainees. Interestingly most cases of detention of minors do not find their way in police records.

The manner in which children were detained raised various concerns about the intentions of the police. Many victims and their families have alleged that children weren’t even participating in protests when they were picked up. In Muzaffarnagar, eye-witnesses state that children were picked up from Madrasas where there were no protests.

Due process laid out for the apprehension of children was flouted at every step. The JJ Act states that post apprehension, the child’s parents must be immediately intimated. However, parents were provided no information and left in a frenzy to run around across police stations in desperation and helplessness searching for their child. It is further mandated that any child who is apprehended has to be facilitated by a child welfare police officer/ special juvenile police unit, and produced before the JJ Board within twenty four hours. Neither of which happened and, in fact, children were kept locked up in police stations for 24-48 hours or more. No age verification was conducted of the children. And, shockingly, the UP police publicly circulated images of protestors, including children, in complete violation of the JJ Act that not only prohibits disclosure of the identity of any child found or alleged to be in conflict with the law, but also grants children the right to privacy and confidentiality.

What was done to the children in police lock-up or jail or other places where they were kept in detention?

The children’s voices speak for themselves:

“I’ve lost track of how many times I was beaten. I was beaten all over my body. I’ve been beaten so badly, I need help to walk or eat.” -A thirteen year old

“I kept telling them that I am physically challenged. But they wouldn’t listen. They put me in a police van and started beating me up non-stop.” – A fifteen year old from Muzaffarnagar

“No one else will admit it but they made us pull down our pants and show our bruised backsides to the guards.” – A boy’s testimony quoted by HuffPost

The body is the ultimate site of violence. Beaten with lathis and batons, humiliated, and physically tortured, children were subject to extreme violence, brutal repression, and stripped entirely of their basic human rights, with no regard even for children with disabilities.

“They refused to give us water and said that if we are so thirsty, we should drink their urine.” – A student from Muzaffarnagar

“First the police gave us all water, which we drank because we were thirsty. But then we realised that we would be beaten up every time we wanted to pee.” – A boy from Bijnor

“I pressed my fingers against my eyelids to keep my eyes open. If you nodded off, the guards would hit you with a stick.” – A seventeen year old from Bijnor

“…they were not even given blankets in the spine chilling cold winter night. All they were given was a floor mat to cover themselves with and a strict word of caution that they were not allowed to sleep.” – Mother of a child victim from Bijnor

Demonstrating behaviour that appears to be twisted with sadism, the children were subject to a traumatic experience of desperate and helpless loss of one’s fundamental bodily autonomy and dignity.

“While we were going in the bus, one of the police officials made a video call to somebody and showed us the video of other people being stripped naked and subjected to ruthless beatings and brutalities. He said that even we are going to be welcomed in the same manner.” – A victim from Bijnor

“At one point they made an adult prisoner strip naked and show us his bruises.” – confirmed by three boys in Bijnor

Intimidation was used strategically as a method of psychological torture. Via videos and live performances of torture of adult detainees, an atmosphere of threat and danger was created that sent a warning to children to either toe the line or experience the same upon their own bodies.

“On Friday, students observe fast. They asked for water to break fast that evening. They were all denied water. Police abused and passed derogatory remarks against Islamic Religious Figures – the Prophet. They were forced to say Jai Shri Ram” – Syed Asad Raza Hussaini, Founder and Principal of a Madrasa in Muzaffarnagar.

In police lock-up and prison, the torture of children merged poisonously with Islamophobia. This fact is sufficient to raise worrisome concerns about the communalisation of the police force and the actual motivations behind the unregulated detainment and torture of children.

Finally, the violence was legitimised by coercing guardians into signing affidavits testifying that no ill treatment was meted out to their children. In Muzaffarnagar, the SSP, SP, CO City contacted Madrasa officials/ heads and asked them to give statements that no beatings/ torture took place and offered, in return, to release everyone from custody, otherwise cases would drag on. Children were released ultimately with parting threats not to participate in any further protests, or else.

“At last (my son) came home after two days with his toes crushed and bruises on his body. He was barely walking and the lower part of his body had turned blue due to beatings by the police…” – The mother of a child victim in Bijnor.

To us, the state of repression was palpable. The victims and their families are terrified – terrified of giving testimonies to fact finding teams or journalists, terrified of exiting their homes, of showing documentation of what they endured, of seeking help or justice, terrified that if they dare tell their stories, a new round of violence will be unleashed upon them and their children. The terror has taken such deep roots that families have made their young boys flee from home to protect them from sudden violence by the police.

The Younger sister of a seventeen year old victim asked us, “What will you do after meeting with my brother? Are you going to share this with any media? I am asking because I hear that if any family or a child talks with anyone, the police harasses them. So, I do not want the same to happen with us as we are already very poor and unable to face the police.”

We frequently left our contact details with the families, offering legal and psychosocial support, but not a single family has reached out since. All trust in the system and in the outsider has been shattered. And we weren’t immune to the fear either. We chose not to cross check any findings with authorities, unsure of whether or not it would unleash more violence upon the victims.

“The traumatized, we might say, carry an impossible history within them. Or they become themselves the symptom of a history that they cannot entirely possess (and thus which possesses them).” – Cathy Caruth

What is to be expected now from the children who have survived custodial torture? How are they supposed to make sense of this experience? What do we expect them to do with the memories of being beaten in police lock-up, prison and other places of detention in cold winter nights? How are they to ever again feel safe in a country where the police itself tortured them, no national or international body came to aid, the media remained silent, and fellow citizens remain trapped in denial and hate? How are these children to feel a sense of belonging within this nation? What is the journey into adulthood that awaits them? Will fearful personalities emerge from such trauma, or will children be radicalised?

Sensoriums of terror are created systematically. A community is targeted, specifically. A message is sent: be silent, know your place, or else. And so, a community is alienated, suppressed, and silenced. Terror cannot be contained and boxed. Terror becomes atmosphere, becomes air, and is breathed, penetrating viscerally into bodies. Terror is mobile. It travels swiftly from the individual victim to their families, to their communities within their district, state, and across the country, in the form of stories. The stories of the traumatised find expression in hushed voices, and broken sentences, and in silences. As they travel, cutting through borders and barriers, the stories – they carry terror within them.

And what has the systemic response to such terror been since?

Institutions and systems, built over decades, the sole purpose of which is to protect child rights, appear to have abdicated their responsibility completely. The unconditional surety of protection and safety that is the right of every child has been stripped. Children have been abandoned as a result of a multi-institutional collapse. The police has maintained ignorance, denied all charges and, in some cases, denied taking children into custody altogether. They have further evaded all queries regarding CCTV camera footages. Human rights institutions have failed to take cognizance of reports that are in the public domain. On the contrary, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) issued a notice urging the Director Generals of Police to punish those protestors using children as “shields,” in effect, placing blame on the protestors. The Uttar Pradesh State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (UPSCPCR) has corroborated the NCPCR order by issuing a similar one to DGP, UP. Such notices only provide immunity to the police to use excessive force with impunity. On 6th January, 2020, 58 Child Rights Activists sent a letter to Priyank Kanoongo, Chairperson, NCPCR, to take action regarding the condition of children in UP but the letter was lacking forcefulness and there has been no networked action on this issue since. Accepting the response from the UP Police that no minors were detained and beaten up, the NCPCR Chairperson subsequently went public with a statement that “I am concerned only about the actions of children, not those of adults.”

India ratified the United Nations Child Rights Convention in 1992, which recognised a child’s right to association and peaceful assembly. The UP police has violated, in principle and in process, all rules of its state, the laws and the spirit of the Indian Constitution, as well as international guidelines against the torture of children and agreements on the protection of children and their rights.

We thus demand …

A time bound (3 months) judicial inquiry on police action from 20.12.2019, focusing on child rights violations as per state and national laws. Directions based on inquiry to be acted on within specific time period with the aim to include a) justice for minors and their families and b) accountability of officers responsible. The same must be done by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) as well.
For judicial inquiry, age determination of detainees under 21 years to be conducted according to rules prescribed under Section 94 of the JJ Act, 2015.
National scale of compensation to be referred to for calculating the physical, mental and psychological violence and loss suffered by the violated minors, and due compensation to be paid.
Counselling for violated minors and their families.
Issue a public notice regarding rights of minors, especially vis-a-vis police action and Rule 8(3) of the JJ Act, 2015 and UP JJ Rules, 2019.

What can we, as common people, do?

To begin with, we can find common ground. Regardless of our positions on the ongoing debates on CAA and NRC, we can agree that gregarious violations of human rights and violence upon children, or anyone, by state authorities themselves is reprehensible and must be curtailed. We can acknowledge and give recognition to the reality of pain and trauma suffered. We can find ways to make such concerns part of our daily conversations at home, with family, and with friends and colleagues. We can draw attention to the problem. We can hold the state accountable for such violence and such inaction. We can move past the generalisations and communal myths. We can bridge gaps between communities and build solidarities. We can place human rights at the centre.

A responsible response now – by the state, judiciary, media, and civil society – is the only hope. It is the only possibility for providing the child victims and their families and communities, any reassurance that they are aren’t after all entirely abandoned, of healing some of the pain of targeted prosecution and dejection that has taken deep roots in their consciousness. Our response now will determine not just the future of those attacked, but also of those who attack, and those who stand by – of the entire nation – because such human rights violations, when unchecked and unacknowledged, haunts everyone. Hate consumes the hated, and also the hateful. These wounds inflicted upon the bodies of children to target the Muslim communities, are inflicted simultaneously upon our national fabric. How we respond now will determine how the children who have survived this torture, and their families and communities, will remember this experience; it will determine how this nation memorialises this period in time and how history is written.

Brutalizing Innocence: Detention Torture & Criminalization of Minors by UP Police to Quell Anti-CAA Protests (Updated Report)