Abhitesh
Nearly 50,000 people have been forced to leave their homes because of ethnic clashes. Of these, 12,694 children are living in relief camps across violence-hit Manipur, and 100 of them are so traumatized that they need professional help, according to a government press release that cites data from the state social welfare department.
It said that a group of qualified doctors and child psychiatrists who work as volunteers for the social welfare department give professional counseling to people who have been through a lot of stress.
“When they find children who have been traumatized so badly, they will be found and taken to trained counselors. We have done this for a little over 100 kids. The head of the social welfare department, Ng Uttam Singh, said, “We hope this number doesn’t go up and that these children who have been traumatized can get back to normal as soon as possible.” “A child might not be frightened right away. But memories of the stress can come back a week or a month later,” he said.
Counselors are sent to every district through the offices for the safety of children to help the displaced children deal with their mental health. He said that they go to the homes for children in rescue camps to give counseling and find children who really need professional counseling.
Child psychiatrist Dr Jina Heigrujam, who has visited several relief camps to identify children having post-traumatic stress disorder, said that professional counselling is essential to avoid a myriad of mental health issues from developing.
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The trained field functionaries of the department identify stress affected children at relief camps and employ ‘play and dance’ methods to identify stress affected children.
After the play and dance group exercise, the displaced children are given drawing pencils and papers and asked to sketch/draw anything they like.
Another cause of concern that the social welfare department is looking to address is the status of the relief camps vis-à-vis their children’s friendliness. As the relief camps are unplanned and set up on a need basis, a UNICEF team, which visited the state, provided a blueprint for setting up children friendly relief camps.
