Juvenile – What this term can lead you to?

Recently, the word ‘Juvenile’ propped up in Indian national Media in colossal terms as our law makers kept some Bill pending in Parliament for reasons best known to them!


Country’s legislators lead the law making appear an impossibility, thus assumed standstill position and provided a stalemate situation in the Parliament: the Temple of Democracy to where the citizens who had sent them with high hopes to legislate on their behalf and not otherwise. So much so was the expectation that “We the People of India” hoped that now we can afford a better life style or improve the quality of our lives or in a nutshell the country shall progress. But in despair, all hopes drowned.


Not before Citizens of this country had to remind the legislators of their duty and not become obstruction of Justice through the social media movement, in the end, which otherwise seems to have been forgotten by Parliamentarians in obsession for their ego, desire to latch on to the power in spite of people’s verdict against them and not going beyond their own party lines and not pursuing the nationalistic and patriotic measures that they are supposedly adhere to meet the hopes of highly expectant electorate.


The one incident that turned the table and forced Parliamentarians to pass the bill: courtesy the gruesome incident of Nibhayer’s rape and murder same time around three years back in 2012 and the action of none other than the parents of Jyoti Singh the victim, known as Nirbhaya codenamed for trial, who had to leave their home and camp in India Gate, Jantar Mantar etc., in Delhi to raise the cause of their daughter’s plight and in absolute self sacrifice and for protecting the rights of the upcoming generations of India’s Daughters.


Going back a little, interestingly, here out of the six culprits booked, five were adults that are above the age of eighteen years have been handed over death sentence and the other lone convict six months short of the magical figure of eighteen at the time of commission of crime or the Juvenile, awarded three years imprisonment. Juvenile was under police custody and was about to be released on Supreme court order after undergoing three years term. Supreme court upheld earlier decision on a fresh plea on the ground of lack of law made by the legislatures, that is in a way pointing towards the law makers inability to have adequate law. This was the turning moment for legislators to wake up.


Immediately after the Nirbhaya incident there was huge uproar in all media including the social media where an innocent girl and her movie going male companion were attacked in a running bus supposed to take to their destination, instead the girl was raped by all six of the convicts and gruesome act of inserting iron rod into her vagina was carried out. Leading ultimately to her death in a Singapore hospital where the Government of the day decided to fly her out in critical condition a few days after the incident had occurred.


Thereafter, three long years have passed but our legislators could not get together in their united wisdom to act and agree to a law to punish the offenders of age less than eighteen but committing heinous crimes.


In the meanwhile a British Film maker made a documentary film on Nirbhaya episode and taken interviews of the convicts inside the Tihar Jail premises and also the counsels for the defendants or the defense lawyer. Both passed derogatory comments to make the girl’s behavior responsible for the rape and assault. The documentary named as ‘India’s Daughter’ was later on banned by the Government. India’s leading newspapers and media had started rhyming rape and it was in continuous print that Times of India had consistently had the Rape word in the headlines for some time making the news papers unsuitable for adolescents and family view. It also turned India as a rape capital of the World and country’s image was largely tarnished abroad. Many conversations we came across from tourism communities as “Is India safe to travel for Women folk?” Such was the insecurity feeling that India lost large revenues in tourism sector!


As per Indian law at the time of Nirbhaya incident, it had strong laws but was weakly implemented. Post Nirbhaya and Shakti Mills Mumbai gang rape incidents the punishment of death penalty for the repeat offenders of rape was introduced in 2013 Criminal Laws amendment bill. Although many deny affect of retributive punishment but the net result is after the death penalty for rapists were pronounced in fast track courts for both Nirbhaya and Shakti Mill case, Times of India had to retract and not put ‘Rape’ word in their headlines not as frequently as they used to for the sake of TRP etc., obviously due to lack of reported and hyped cases. This may be in a way assumed to be success of the movement by all kinds of media.


Here comes the factors where the adolescents the fragile word for Juvenile need to be handled carefully. This is the age popularly known as formative years and there has to be methods to deal with such unstable minds. It’s a matter of so much delicate probity that any misadventure by the person concerned or its guardians may lead to disaster during this time.


Juvenile mind is as fragile as glass and if it falls from grace then it would break beyond repair. Information inflow to the adolescent mind should be controlled in a manner as how food intake is controlled. As for food that we take determine partly our behavior and should be able to take and offer right food for nourishment and not for sparking any kind of incitement to the tender minds. Information feed plays a very vital role in development of the mind of the teenagers being the food for the mind and psyche and thus environmental transformation of the mind in the right direction depends much on the quality of information feed. In the present days of availability of information and content over the internet and its absorption plays a crucial role in development of the future minds of Indians. The role of mother and DNA is all the more of paramount importance being factors to determine the behavioral traits of the Children and its psyche. The Children of today who are supposed to look after and determine the future of India.


Law making for Juvenile is thus critical. In India prior to this law for Juvenile or Children or adolescents less than the age of eighteen years were to be punished with a three year imprisonment for heinous crimes duly to be awarded by Juvenile justice board and to be kept in remand homes for their transformation. Here Juveniles are not to be kept alongside hardened criminals as this would lead to more disaster as we are offering them a horribly adverse environment and not a conducive one for the betterment of the child in question.


Evolution of human beings makes the race get advanced by every day. So this cut off of eighteen years decided more than half century ago needs to be advanced as per law of the nature. Carefulness is to be exercised especially in case of crimes which are threat to the society. In other progressive countries of the World crime and nature of crime gets precedence and not age. But there are compulsions in India to adopt such so called stringent measures. There are certain mentors of leading political parties in India who speak in favour of Child criminals is also another extreme view point although condemnable, law makers have to deal with such opinions as well.


Nevertheless passage of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Bill 2015 put through both the houses of the Parliament is an welcome step and now Juveniles from sixteen years onwards will be treated at par with adults of over eighteen years of age in terms of commission of offence and punishment for heinous crimes. However, the ambit of ‘heinous offences’ as defined in the legislation doesn’t merely restricted encompass gruesome crimes such as rape and murder. Juveniles accused of counterfeiting, cheating, arson, kidnapping, causing grievous hurt, dacoity, burglary or committing theft in a building are all now liable to be tried as adults. Furthermore, Centre for Child and the law elsewhere in various occasions where a Juvenile can be tried as adults are such as Sati, Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, Arms, Offences as per Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, in case of atrocities on Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, Terrorist and Disruptive Activities, Control of Organised Crime and Food Safety and Standards Acts, etc.


However, this is not the end; the Indian law needs to be improved further and to treat all in the same plane in case of heinous crimes irrespective of age is much needed, as now if a fifteen year six months old performs the crimes then what do we do? Do we go back to our drawing board once more?


Can we now expect a safer society? The answer is obviously “NO” as researches suggest that all depends on the character building in a country rather than retributive punishment or reformative measures, as these are actually not preventive measures but a post facto procedural action.


It is thus suggested that the curriculum in educational institutions to include subjects of character building, patriotism, psychology and special training on how to behave and lead lives, rather than restricting to pure text bookish knowledge is need of the hour.


Hence, Character building of Citizens of the country should get precedence over everything else.



#JaiHind