On the frontline

The state cannot abdicate their responsibility and hand over guns to children and tell them to act as guards

In a strange, and inherently alarming twist in its effort to keep school children safe in the wake of the December 16, 2014 attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar, the government appears to have decided the children themselves should act as the frontline against militants. In Punjab, the police and the Bomb Disposal Squad have visited schools in Multan and other areas teaching young boys and girls how to handle firearms, detect explosive devices, evacuate a building or care for the injured. This follows measures in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa to train teachers in the use of guns and grant licences to those who choose to bring them to classrooms.

While the police say the measure is aimed at enabling children and their teachers to ward off militants until help can arrive, there is something inherently wrong with placing weapons in the hands of children. These children should be able to focus on their lessons and other school activities without bearing the burden of providing security to themselves. This responsibility must rest with the state and its agencies. The state and its agencies cannot abdicate their responsibility and hand over guns to children and tell them to act as guards. This should simply not be their role and nor should they be compelled to assume it. While training in basic first-aid and drills for any emergency situation are wise, children or their teachers cannot be turned into a force to take on highly trained and highly committed militants, bent on murder. Beyond the practical and moral issues, there are also broader concerns. We live in a highly brutalised society where violence is endemic. Training children to use guns simply adds to the problem. We need to reduce, not expand, the number of guns in circulation as well as to decrease the acceptability for them. The policy being pursued right now acts against this. It also threatens to add to the sense of fear and trauma among children who already attend barricaded schools where barbed wires top walls. This should not be their reality. We need to protect our children and not place them in the cross hairs of militant guns.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 26^th,  2015.

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