India - Photo of Internally Displaced Grandmother & Granddaughter

While women and children comprise between 70 and 80 per cent of conflict-induced internally displaced people, there is still too little focus on their specific rights and needs. Due to conflict, countless displaced women have become the heads of their households, and care alone for children and older parents in an unfamiliar environment....Internally displaced children are among the most at risk of war-affected children. They are often recruited into armed forces, and are subject to abuses, malnutrition and discrimination.

Near Bijni, western Assam. Muslims of Bengali origin living on the roadside since the conflict in 1993. They live in dangerous conditions in makeshift shelters. The shelters line the busy roadside, regularly used by buses and lorries. There are often accidents involving children, unaware of the danger. With the plans to widen the main road, the government tried to move them to a neighbouring district, but the local population refused. The IDPs remain ill informed of the decision-making process concerning them. Girl and her grandmother at the entrance of their shelter.

Credit: Viviane Dalles