Juvenile Justice Act - Is it on the right way?

Juvenile Justice Act 2000 is a central Act enacted for the care, protection. development and rehabilitation of children in need of care and protection and juveniles in conflict with law.

The Act seeks to achieve a uniform legal frame work for Juvenile Justice in the country as a whole so as to ensure that no child in any circumstances is lodged in jail or police lock-up. Juvenile Justice Act provides provisions for proper rehabilitation of children in need of care and protection.

The Act refers to two categories of children -- ‘children in conflict with the law’, and ‘children in need of care and protection’.

The Act also has established two bodies - the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) to specifically address the needs of ‘children in need of care and protection’ and the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB)  to look into the matters concerning ‘children in conflict with the law’.

In the case of ‘children in conflict with the law’, the Act mandates that after being apprehended the child must be brought before the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) within 24 hours. A child who is in need of care and protection should be produced before the CWC. In many occasions the functions of these two bodies are inter related or supplementary . Mahatma Gandhi once said that, “if every saint has a past then every criminal has a future”. To deal with the child in conflict with law is a very delicate subject. In the case of a child offender, or as we call the child in conflict with law, special care should be given to his future for it is yet in a budding state and is not beyond repair. He should not be exposed to the brutality of common trial procedure. It will shatter his fragile physiological framework . Here the joint effort of these two bodies will do a lot.

A large majority of the children in need of care and protection are from typically poor families; they have had few opportunities to attend regular school. They have already experienced a great deal in their lives within the very short span. Many have faced abuse and exploitation; some have been severely neglected by their parents causing them to leave their families and resort to crime. Many come from broken families. When these children are brought before the CWC or to the observation home they are in immediate need of care and guidance.

Despite the Act, many of the observation homes have not been provided with necessary amenities and they have not achieved the objectives for which they have been set up. They still lack adequate facilities for children in conflict with the law. The children live in a dormitory that they rarely move out of. This is where they eat, sleep, and occasionally play games. A bell rings and they are served food. After this they are left to entertain themselves within the confines of the hall, with a caretaker watching over them all the time. They are not provided with adequate facilities. They have to wash their cloths by themselves. If a washing machine is provided in all Observation homes, this problem can be solved. This type of very silly issues are not attended to by the authorities.

Proper vocational training can be imparted to the children. For this also a proper schedule must be prepared. The efforts to provide better educational opportunities at the observation homes have largely been unsuccessful.

There must also be a change in the mindset. Children who have committed offence should not be left to live with the guilt all their lives. They must be shown some direction as they are unable to cope with life outside once they are released.

The primary task of providing vocational education and training to children is to increase their chances of employment when they are released, and thereby reduce recidivism. However, there has been no sustained commitment to this issue by the government or civil society.

Though this is a Central legislation, it is the duty of the concerned State Governments to constitute the JJB, CWC and Juvenile Police units etc. for the proper implementation of the Act. In many cases it has not been made so far. In kerala however the J J B and C W C has been constituted by the end of April 2009 in all Districts. Th Juvenile Police has not yet been constituted so far as provided in the ACT. The Case in each state differs.

Another area of serious neglect is the shockingly slow justice system. Many of the JJBs show much reluctance in the speedy disposal of the cases. There is no proper review mechanism on the rate of disposal of cases. In some cases the Judicial officers who are chairman of the JJB have not changed the mindset to sit with two social workers and share the status in trying the cases. There are also delays due to witnesses not turning up in court and delays in cross-examination.

Very often members of the Juvenile Justice Board are not well-versed in the Act itself. They are not properly trained. Some training programs are conducted to satisfy the statistics of the Department. They never engage qualified competent persons to train this very responsible officers. There is no induction training for them. This also creates a lot of problem. According to the Act the decision of the majority of the members will prevail. If the members are not properly there every chances of taking wrong decisions. The Metropolitan Magistrate who is the chairman of the Board has only the power to preside and to sign in the orders. He cannot supersede the decisions of the majority. So a well trained, qualified,and judicious Board should exercise the powers with a clear vision.

The CWC members are also not given the proper training that they require. The position they hold is equated to that of 'bench of magistrates'. But the magisterial or administrative training is not given this body to work with cohesion and to uphold the interests of the children. I had the occasions to hear the hue and cry of some of the members in meetings, to increase the monetary benefits and allowances for them rather than of the protection of child rights. This position is treated as a vocation and not as a service by many of them.The CWC should be made as a voluntary body with commitment and they should be thoroughly trained to enforce the provisions of the Act.

As far as the Adoption centers are concerned, they are also not free from corrupt practices. The motive of many of the centers are making money in the disguise of saving the children. Just a business and pretend that they are saviours.There are a few centers who are service oriented and really work for the benefit of the children.The general revenue is is being taken away by these corruption centers by way of aids etc.There is no provisions in the Act to check this.

Now this is the right time to put a question to ourselves that whether the act and the bodies constituted under the act really address the issues of the needy children? Whether the bodies are properly empowered and equipped? Whether our mindset is child friendly?

The best interest of the child - that should be the primary goal. Every child should be brought up happily and correctly. Whether we have achieved this? Or are we towards this path?