Casualties

Casualties Overview

In 2014, the Monitor identified 18 casualties from mines and other ERW in the Republic of India. Of the total casualties for which the age and sex were known,[1] 14 were men, including 12 military/security personnel and 2 were women. There were six civilian casualties, including four child casualties (two girls and two unknown) or 67% of all civilian casualties. Nearly all incidents occurred in the region of Jammu and Kashmir, with one single victim-activated IED casualty recorded outside the region, in Chhattisgarh.[2]

The 18 mine/ERW casualties identified in 2014 represented a decrease from the 23 casualties in 2013, 78 casualties in 2012, 51 casualties in 2011, and 26 casualties recorded in 2010. Such fluctuations in annual casualty figures are not necessarily indicative of trends and can be attributed to the challenges in collecting consistent and accurate data from media and local sources, since India lacks a systematic data collection system.

The cumulative number of casualties in India is not known. Between 1999 and 2014, the Monitor identified 3,184 victim-activated mine/improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and ERW casualties in India (1,079 killed; 2,104 injured; 1 unknown). Nearly half of these casualties were civilians.

Victim Assistance

The total number of survivors is unknown, but at least 2,104 people were injured through the end of 2014.

Assessing victim assistance needs

No efforts were made to assess the needs of mine/ERW survivors in 2014. In early 2015, Handicap International (HI) carried out a Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices (KAP) survey regarding risks surrounding mines/ERW and IEDs in four districts of Jammu and Kashmir. The survey focused on risk education, but also identified an apparently high prevalence of disability in border areas that required further investigation,[3]

Victim assistance coordination

India does not have any specific coordination mechanisms or national plans for mine/ERW victim assistance.

The MSJE coordinated the Indian physical rehabilitation sector. A new Department of Disability Affairs within the MSJE began operation in May 2012. Its role is to facilitate the empowerment of all persons with disabilities, to regulate physical rehabilitation services and various disability funds, as well as to develop and implement India’s legal framework as it relates to physical disability.[4]

The Rights of Persons with Disabilities bill was finalized in 2014 and began the parliamentary process for adoption.[5] The history of the bill process began with a draft proposal in 2011 following consultations with persons with disabilities and disabled peoples’ organizations (DPOs). The second draft was notified by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment in 2012. However, that draft was opposed in part by several key stakeholders. Disability rights actors united against the third draft of bill, of 2014, which was believed to contain violations of the CRPD.[6] In February 2014, the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill 2014 was introduced in the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Parliament of India, to replace the Persons with Disabilities Act (1995). The Standing Committee on Social Justice and Empowerment of the Rajya Sabha submitted its report on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill, 2014 on May 7, 2015.[7] As of December 2015 the bill had not yet been passed.

In 2014, India stated that “Mine victims are also assisted in rehabilitation through the provision of financial compensation, employment and health assistance. India’s ratification of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) underscores the importance that we attach to victim assistance.[8] Previously, in 2010 India had similarly reported that “mine victims are assisted with rehabilitation inter alia through financial compensation employment and health care including by providing prosthetics.[9]

At the Mine Ban Treaty Third Review Conference in Maputo, India stated that its 2007 ratification of the CRPD underscores the importance it attaches to victim assistance.[10] India’s Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) Amended Protocol II Article 13 report for the period from April 2014 to March 2015 did not include details of victim assistance provided, and India noted that the situation had remained unchanged since 2006.[11] As in past years, India stated in its CCW Protocol V Article 10 report that reporting on the protection of the civilian population from the effects of ERW was not applicable for India.[12]

Survivor inclusion

Associations of mine survivors were included in the consultative process to in initial draft of the national Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill (2011).[13]

Service accessibility and effectiveness

Victim assistance activities[14]

Severe flooding and multiple landslides affected Jammu and Kashmir in 2014. More than 500,000 people were reported as displaced including landmine survivors and other persons with disabilities. Major hospitals in the region were flooded or damaged reducing the availability of services for survivors and persons with disabilities.[15]

Budget shortfalls forced the suspension of programs by the ICRC’s Special Fund for the Disabled (SFD) in India in 2014. The ICRC took over support for SFD programs.[16] In 2014, the ICRC continued to provide support for three prosthetic and orthotic centers in Jammu and Kashmir: the Artificial Limb Centre at the Bone and Joint Hospital, Srinagar; the Artificial Limb Centre at the Governmental Medical College, Jammu; and the Voluntary Medicare Society. These ICRC-supported centers assisted 26 mine/ERW survivors to obtain prosthetic limbs in 2014, a decrease compared to 64 survivors in 2013, but similar to the 23 assisted in 2012. This continues to represent a significant increase in contrast with the period 2000 to 2010, when just 95 survivors were served during the entire period. The ICRC also supported a center in Chhattisgarh. Due to the suspension of programming by the SFD, the ICRC started to provide support to two additional centres: the Christian Medical College (CMC) in Vellore and Mobility India (MI) in Bangalore. Overall the number of people recieving services at ICRC-assisted centers in 2014 increased compared to 2013.[17]

Despite prosthetics being, in theory, available to anyone at no charge through the public health system, access to rehabilitation remained difficult for the poorest persons with disabilities due to a range of factors, including the lack of facilities in rural areas; most facilities not being fully operational because of insufficient equipment, materials, and professional staff; long waiting periods to receive care; a lack of awareness of existing services and rights among potential beneficiaries; the need to cover costs for transportation as well as for accommodation and food during treatment; or lack of knowledge of existing opportunities to have those costs covered.[18]

There was reported to be an urgent need for a long-term rehabilitation policy addressing the needs of child survivors and children with disabilities in Jammu and Kashmir.[19]

While many survivors were reported to be receiving a monthly disability allowance, this was considered insufficient to live on.[20]

The government has stated at international meetings that mine survivors and families of those killed by mines are entitled to compensation.[21] Monetary compensation to landmine survivors and family members of people killed is distributed by the Ministry of Defence under a 2006 decree. However, many survivors have not been successful in applying for compensation.[22] A local activist was quoted as saying that a concrete rehabilitation policy for survivors was needed because “The process of compensation is quite tedious. By the time it is complete, people are tired, insane or dead and only a handful of people have actually benefited.[23] Cases have been brought before the Jammu and Kashmir State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) that ruled in favor of survivors and for the Ministry of Defense to provide compensation. However, reports show the rulings of the SHRC have remained without effect.[24]

The standard one-time compensation payment from the government is the equivalent of US$1,500, which is inadequate to cover treatment and the future needs of survivors.[25] To pay for medical expenses, families often have to borrow money or sell their land or livestock, resulting in worsening economic situations overall.[26]

The government program for the universalization of elementary school education,the Education for All Movement(Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, SSA), has provisions for paying special attention to children with disabilities.[27] However, SSA was not addressing the needs of child mine/ERW survivors in Poonch district.[28] There were no known economic inclusion initiatives such as livelihoods training or employment measures targeting, or inclusive of, mine/ERW survivors.[29]

Psychosocial support for survivors continued to be limited. MSF provided mental health and psychosocial care, particularly for conflict and weapons victims at five fixed locations in Srinagar and Baramulla districts of Jammu and Kashmir. Teams also visited victims of violence in Srinagar hospitals and provided psychological first aid, thereby ensuring basic psychological, social, and material needs were being met. In 2013, MSF launched counseling services.[30] These services in Jammu and Kashmir were forced to close for one month in September 2014 due to flooding.[31]

India’s Persons with Disabilities Act 1995 protects the rights of persons with disabilities. However, discrimination in employment, education, and access to healthcare remained pervasive, especially in rural areas. Legislation requires that all public buildings and transportation be accessible for persons with disabilities, although accessibility remained limited.[32]

India ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) on 1 October 2007.