Risk factors of war on children

War leaves pain-staking episodes on children and adolescents. It can be physical, mental, spiritual, and ethical.

Long-lasting Impacts

1. Direct exposure to war

• War directly causes PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), depression, and depersonalization problems in coping with society.
• It causes behaviour disorders like aggression, violence, and criminal behaviour.
• Alcohol and drug usage on rise.
• Infliction of war and military aggression is a violation of children's basic human rights.

2. Death and injury

• Includes domestic violence, isolation, and disruption of healthy relationships.
• Poverty, scarcity of shelter and food, and sexual violence.
• Loneliness, ill-treatment, sudden death of family members cause post-traumatic symptoms in children.
• Infectious diseases, poor health conditions, malnutrition, and deaths due to starvation are on rise.
• Respiratory and choking problems.

3. Deprivation of basic needs

• Lots of struggle for food, water, shelter, and health.
• Education and childhood is lost in rubbles.
• Jobless families, poverty, unemployment, disrupt socio-economic status
• Wide spread of communicable diseases
• Pollution and climate change also deprive the rights of a child.

4) Psychological impacts

• Fear and anxiety grips.
• Negative behaviours of children can be visible.
• Reduces mental and emotional capabilities.
• War affects attention span, cognitive capacity.
• Bombs and shellings in war zones can make children deaf and dumb. Insomnia and mental disturbances can be visible.
• Lack of parental care, forced separation from parents can cause loneliness, high levels of depression, anger, loss of trust in society and relations.
• Patriotic and spiritual suffering are on rise.
• Children suffer with poor immune system and nervous breakdowns too.
• Developmental problems get serious.
• Wars cause physical, psychological, spiritual, and ethical damage.

Children are the future of our world. Their external safety and inner security are the responsibility of every world citizen.

War is a crisis, so is the mental health of children.

The rights of a child include health, well-being, good development, and peace.

As a famous saying goes:

"Where war destroys and tears apart, peace builds, strengthens and restores".

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References:

• Unicef reports
• link.springer.com/