Juvenile justice: disparity between aspirations, perceptions and reality: a case study of Banglore

Abstract

100 years ago, policy makers realized the need for diverting youthful offenders from the destructive punishment of criminal courts and focusing on rehabilitation, earmarking beginning of reformative approach where focus of the system was on child rather than the act committed by such child. US have been pioneer in its effort to implement above approach. Incidentally, a lot of research has also been conducted in US over past century. Other countries have been moving towards adopting reform/rehabilitation-oriented treatment of juvenile offenders and neglected children guided by UN and other international conventions. While the effectiveness of these methods was still being evaluated, dramatic rise in juvenile violence in US generated considerable fear and concern among public and consequently led US to embrace "get-tough" policy, terming juvenile delinquency procedures as too soft and ineffective. This shift is however not backed by research findings but distorted impressions created by few violent and serious crimes committed by very few juvenile criminals. India made a beginning in 1986 with the passing of first centralized JJ Act in 1986,subsequently amended in 2000 to include the recommendations of CRC and various other international conventions. But even after 18 years, the implementation of the original Act has been lopsided with functionaries either not being adequate enough to deliver ornot being convinced about it. On top of it, governments have not bothered to provide adequate resources to effectively implement even the simplest of the recommendations. The latest Act of 2000 appears like a vision statement rather than what practically can be done in the present circumstances. Widening the scope of the Act has created a big disparity between the aspirations and reality. The situation has been aggravated by armchair thinking of academicians and NGOs, who are dreaming of running even before we can learn to walk. NGOs have further complicated the situation by demanding the implementation without understanding the harsh realities of the existing criminal justice system and the circumstances in which the police and other functionaries of the Juvenile Justice System are functioning. My thesis deals with the task of assessing the ground level situation in the juvenile institutions in Karnataka, perceptions of police and NGOs about the Act, their role and the remedies to make the implementation more practical. The thesis starts with outlining the evolution of juvenile justice in US, Uganda and South Africa and compares the legislation in India with these countries. The choice of the countries is intentional rather than coincidental. US is undisputed leader in this field, having started the Juvenile Justice system separate from adult criminal system as early as1852. Uganda has enacted its Juvenile law in such a fashion so as to incorporate the international conventions in toto. It is credited with a most child friendly legislation in recent decades. South Africa has enacted its first ever-juvenile law in 1995 and is a mix of Uganda and US. Legislation in India is still going through the process of evolution and is far from perfect. The implementation of this act is even more imperfect. Even though we have caught up with rest of the world in enacting progressive laws incorporating a large number of provisions of CRC and UN conventions like Beijing and Tokyo declarations, we have totally neglected the implementation part and left it to few agencies like police who consider it very low in their list of priorities. We may emphasise that as principal gate-keeper to the JJS, Police has highest amount of interaction with the juveniles. Police itself is the biggest disbeliever in the reformatory process and consider all the special measures as an interference and hindrance in the administration of criminal justice system. Also for one billion population, the number of institutions created is abysmally small. Besides, the infrastructure, manpower and funds provided to these institutions are pitiable. Many of these institutions have themselves become breeding ground for exploitation of children transforming them into hardened criminals. Many feel threatened by such programs as these are seen as compromising the public safety. Then involvement of NGOs has been minimal especially when it comes to dealing with children in conflict with law. Moreover, till recent amendment of JJA, their role was not well defined and acknowledged. The conclusion drawn from the study is that instead of amending law repeatedly, government needs to focus on creation of infrastructure and training of functionaries on a massive scale. Only change in attitude of functionaries like correctional officers and police with the effective partnership with NGOs can bring about the change for the good.