Juvenile Delinquency is a broad term that covers all the
wrong doings and anti-law acts by the children below 18 years of age and
particularly between 16-18 years. The current Juvenile Justice Act 1999 amended
in 2015 focuses on heinous crimes committed by children in this age bracket.
However, the focus on this age group is more towards hard-laws and their trials as adults, if they’re understood to have committed the crime in the
‘adult state of mind’ as determined by a specially constituted board.
This act, while envisages to deter the occurrence of
juvenile crime as seen in the rising statistics (if we consider that statistics
as per Crime Records Bureau are infallible and not mis-reported), some of the
provisions are rather pressed towards being more retributive and hostile than
seeking to reform, correct and prevent conditions that in the first place lead to
such social behavior. It does not seek to provide legitimate means for
children in the country to grow up with moral education and avoid falling into
the trap of crime due to widespread poverty, unemployment, lure of earning easy
money, growing violence and its passive acceptance as well as some other forms
of exploitation. The act does not dwell into the fact that most juvenile
delinquencies are a result of substance abuse. It does not talk of creation of
any de-addiction centre dedicated for children. It has no provision for
counselling homes to correct any small law-breaking or aggressive behavior of
children which can be read as precursors to perhaps, heinous future outcomes.
Also, the act talks about determining whether a child has
committed a crime in his ‘child mind’ or ‘adult mind’. This is a medically
flawed concept and has no basis in science. There is no unit or instrument
present to measure the ‘adultness’ of any mind, whatever the person’s age. In
fact, in situations wherein people suffer from mental disorders, which might be
as common place as rage and depression, they tend to behave in an untoward
manner. Since crime could then originate, from mental disorders which are mostly
outcomes of social realities, the act specifies nothing to address the root
cause.
In-fact, if one examines the number and nature of crimes
reported to have been committed by children, it is not surprising to see that
most of these children come from the under-privileged, low-income and highly vulnerable
sections of the society where poverty is widespread and violence prevails in
every aspect of life. Thereby, the young minds are conditioned to accept
violence as a way of life and do not understand the complex words of different
laws which they could be tried under for doing exactly what they see around
themselves. It is obvious that strong laws can be deterrent to only those who
can be made aware of them and comprehend them.
How does the government or the administration plan to ensure
that every child or teenager is aware of the consequences he or she could face
if they commit, say a murder, or hurt someone’s modesty? If there are processes
and institutions in place to spread awareness about laws, then why are these
unable to spread value education and imbibe a sense of morality and justice?
The act fails, terribly, to answer these pertinent and relevant questions.
Finally, the act does not address the horrendous conditions of India's existing Juvenile Justice Homes. A 2013 report by Asian Centre for Human Rights titled 'India's Hell Holes' has extensively documented the incident of sexual assault and physical violence in these homes. A child, in the name of being reformed is more susceptible to getting re-hardened as a top-notch criminal. Insensitive approach towards children is not only going to increase crime and insecurity, it'll ultimately lead to having the state spend millions in putting criminals behind the bar, trying them after spending another set of millions in appointing and equipping the machinery in catching them. All this, after they would have caused enough social and economic damage to the people and eroded the country's image. This would also hurt the neo-liberal agenda of the ruling as a country crippled with crime is never a beautiful destination for any investment. Besides, this, we must adopt a more practical approach towards juvenile delinquency. India has far too many other issues to produce more for itself for no good reason.
A country that cannot take care of its children is far behind in the race of becoming a super-power, especially when it vouches for the so called 'Demographic Dividend' as its biggest trump card.
