INDIA:

Armed groups are reported to have recruited children in Jammu and Kashmir and in localised conflicts in several other states.

U.N. protocol prohibiting use of child soldiers: signed November 2004

NEPAL:

Maoist rebels have abducted hundreds of children apparently for political indoctrination programmes. There have also been reports of government forces using children as spies and messengers. Children suspected of being Maoist sympathisers have been detained or killed.

U.N. protocol prohibiting use of child soldiers: signed September 2000

SRI LANKA:

The armed opposition group, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), recruits and abducts boys and girls to fight. The average age on recruitment is 15. Some 650 children had been released by March 2004, but hundreds, possibly thousands, remain.

U.N. protocol prohibiting use of child soldiers: ratified September 2000