From lasting damage to resilience: How communal riots affect children

A month after Mumbai riots in 1992-93, a study found more than half of Class 3-4 municipal school students in a riot-affected area reported sleep disturbances including nightmares; a third had anxiety

One January day in 1993, 14-year-old Abdul Wahid Shaikh was out shopping when the police opened fire in Vikhroli, a suburb in north-east Bombay (now Mumbai). A bullet grazed the teenager, who dropped his bags and raced towards the mosque nearby for cover. He sheltered there for a few hours, then crept back home when he felt it was safe. Shaikh had seen little violence in his short life until then; he had Hindu friends and a happy childhood.

Then, following the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, on December 6, 1992, violence erupted in Vikhroli Parksite and