Child trauma hits strife-torn Assam

In March police beat anti-Bodo supporters, detractors of a Bodo homeland insist it will be carved out of other tribal areas

DARKUCHI, India (Reuters) -- Seema Datta, a 14-year-old in India's revolt-racked state of Assam, is still woken by nightmares of her father lying in a pool of blood outside their house, shot dead by tribal guerrillas.

Her father was gunned down in 1998 for refusing to pay protection money to rebels fighting for a separate state for Bodo tribal people in the northeastern state.

"I feel awful when other kids talk about their dads and I remember I don't have one," Seema said, tears spilling down her cheeks as she sits in her mud-floored home in Darkuchi village.

Seema is not alone in her loss. Thousands of other children have lost a parent or relative in more than two decades of conflict in Assam, home to a patchwork of ethnic groups and tribes and rebellions that have cost more than 10,000 lives.

The children suffer from trauma as a result of losing their relatives, police say.

"One problem is children think no one dies naturally in a state like Assam," H.K. Deka, Assam's director-general of police, told Reuters at his office in Guwahati, guarded by flak-jacketed police commandos toting automatic rifles.

But help is at hand for children like Seema.

Last November, state police launched a program, "Aashwas" (Reassurance), to give psychological aid to children who have lost family members in rebel-related violence, helping them to deal with their grief.

More than 60 children have already been counseled and hundreds more will meet psychiatrists this year under Aashwas, the first program of its kind in India and supported by UNICEF.

Favorite uncle killed

The need for such a program is driven home by Mamoni Datta, 16, Seema's sister.

Some 10,000 Bodos protested back in December 2001 demanding the creation of a Bodoland Terrritorial Council (BTC)

"Nobody's spoken to us about how we feel," said Mamoni.

"The men of the village look funnily at me because my father's gone. I wish he were still alive so he could protect us," the pretty teenager said, her eyes glistening with tears.

The girls' father was from the eastern state of West Bengal but spent nearly all his life in Assam.

He was targeted by the Bodo rebels who say their lands are being swamped by outsiders.

One of Assam's main rebel groups, the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA), operates in Nowgong, a bustling market town that is the home of Biplab Saha, 16, who struggles with tears while trying to recall the day ULFA shot his favorite uncle to death after seizing him for ransom in 2000.

ULFA has been fighting for independence for Assam since 1979 and accuses New Delhi of exploiting the state's resources and doing little to develop the province.

"I hoped they'd release him but they didn't. I couldn't believe they could kill him," Saha said about his 30-year-old uncle, a cosmetics salesman who used to live with the teenager's parents in a traditional joint-family arrangement.

Assam's concern over the children's trauma appears to come late partly because the industrially backward state is grappling with other massive problems.

It has an under-five mortality rate of 116 per 1,000 live births, way above India's already dismal average of 94 per 1,000, and a primary school dropout rate of over 40 percent and.

But Deka says Aashwas is a case of better late than never.

"We have to sensitize our own officers to how children have been affected by insurgency. Otherwise, another generation will grow up traumatized," he said.

Psychiatrist Dipesh Bhagabati, who has treated many traumatized children, agrees.

"When children recall violent scenes, they become panicky. They can't eat, sleep or concentrate on their studies.

Their whole lifestyle changes," said Bhagabati, who is based in Assam's main city of Guwahati.

"The problem of children suffering from trauma in Assam because of insurgency is acute. Most are from rural areas and not aware of psychiatric counseling."