Juvenile vulnerability

Juvenile vulnerability

By P. P. Baburaj*

16 year old Sadiq (name changed) is the youngest among 4 children of Anwar Pasha, a roadside vendor in Sivajinagar of Bangalore city. He was caught by the police on the charges of theft (IPC 379). On hearing the news of his arrest, Pasha and his wife were very much disturbed and frantically approached religious leaders and relatives to bring him out of the case. He was released after 5 days from the Government Observation Home on bail granted by the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB). Sadiq also was so much afraid of the whole process after he was caught. He reported torture by the police in the lockup for a day before he was sent to Observation Home. Unable to bear the pain exerted on him by the police, he agreed with whatever they tutored. He was on the spot when the theft took place by a few elders who fled after seeing the police.

Sadiq lives in a one bed room house in a slum of Bangalore city. Except in monsoon, he sleeps with two other brothers outside the house as the house is congested. He studied in Urdu medium till 5^th standard and discontinued education only to join his father in vending. However, he wanted to continue in school and left the idea after stiff resistance from parents as he had ‘grown up enough’ to earn for the family.

When he was out of the OH, Pasha insisted him to be with him fulltime in vending. However, his tale of woes unfolded since then. The police came again in search of Sadiq on another charge of theft of home theatre and other electronic equipments from a house in the city. It was a shock to Sadiq as he was not at all involved in any such activities. Pasha closed the shop and ran around to get his son out of OH. Pasha says, “I earn about Rs.300-400 a day. I pay a monthly rent of Rs.1800 for home and a daily rent of Rs.80 for the shop. I lose all the savings when he is caught by the police. Everyone asks money. I am fed up.”

Thus Sadiq was caught thrice by the police on same charges. On each arrest, he was beaten up and forced to confess on the charges framed by the police. Unable to continue with his father’s work, he thought of leaving the city for a living.

There are a good number of juveniles of Sadiq’s age group who are falsely framed under certain criminal charges.  In the research on ‘reasons of juvenile crimes’, commissioned by ECHO-Centre for Juvenile Justice, Bangalore, it was found that the number of such children fabricated under false charges was not small. Some juveniles have revealed that they had committed theft in the first case but the second and third were false. A juvenile who is once caught by the police in an offence has more chances of getting caught repeatedly. In the research, which is in the wrapping stage, it was found that such juveniles hailed from a vulnerable background. They could easily be tracked, bended upon and tutored. Police finds it easy to fall upon such juveniles for their unproven long pending cases. The police officials corroborate such instances. Putting it off the record, police officials repented that some of them had to do it due to pressure to clear the pending cases. The social workers involved in rehabilitation of juveniles in the city vouched that ‘fixing’ of juveniles in theft cases was quite common. They have come across a large number of children repeatedly coming through the juvenile justice process after they were ‘fixed’ in cases by the police. The ‘fixing’ of cases repeatedly on a juvenile gradually makes him a criminal, an unwanted human being and a prodigal. The community including friends and relatives refuse to accept him back to the home circles wholeheartedly even after he is relieved of all cases. He obviously ends up in joining professionals in criminal activities.

Vulnerability is the outstanding factor for a child to get into criminal inclinations. It is definitely not his choice. There are several pushing factors around him to get into a crime. The stakeholders need to see him sympathetically and put efforts to understand his vulnerability before prejudiced against him. Circumstances do play a major role to turn a juvenile a delinquent. The vulnerability coupled with the natural instinct of their deviant behaviour makes them prey for the police. In the research process, we found that most of the juveniles who underwent the procedures have developed arrogance, dissatisfaction, pessimistic overtures, devoid of hope, intolerance with their parents and immature conclusions about life.

In the findings of ECHO research, sponsored by Dept of Women and Child Development and UNICEF, the juveniles were dissatisfied with the administration of justice. They find hardly anyone who touches their heart in the process. All the stakeholders like police, government staffs, court officials etc behave with them rudely and prejudiced. It is now highly relevant to revamp the administration of juvenile justice system in such a way to be more conducive to the aspirations and innocence of juveniles.

*The author is the consultant of the ECHO research