Editorial
Adolescent delinquency
Juvenile courts and correction centres should deal with it
Little wonder, the sentencing in a Jamalpur court of one 16-year-old and another aged 17, to ten and seven-year imprisonment terms, respectively, in an arms case, has surprised legal experts and children's rights activists. The police had found a cartridge in possession of the 17-year old and a revolver with the 16-year old lad. They apparently couldn't explain how the fire arms got into their hands. For all one knows, the Children's Act 1974 and the Supreme Court's instructions categorically require that children should be tried only in juvenile courts whatever the allegations against them. Apart from the jurisdictional question of who should have rightfully tried them there is the issue of sentencing them to long-term imprisonment evoking child rights concerns. Let's bring up the broader issue of juvenile delinquency. Driven by poverty and squalor and having nothing to look forward to, children are most vulnerable to exploitation by criminal elements and other vested interest groups. They are often used as carriers of drugs and weapons, especially the slum-dwelling and the floating adolescents. To keep them from all sorts of negative or evil influence they need to be given the minimal opportunity for a reasonably organised and engaging lifestyle. The child welfare network of the government has limitations, a void that can only be filled by a complementary role of the NGOs. So far as dealing with delinquent behaviour goes, we must have adequate number of juvenile courts and correctional centres or penitentiaries. They should not be on paper only but must be functional and relate to areas most vulnerable to child criminality. As a preventive option, we need to open guidance and counselling centres. The conventional perception of children's rights is limited to catering to their basic rights to food, shelter, health and schooling which is a tall order alright in a poor country like ours but the time has definitely come now for a concerted effort at the community, government and NGO levels to protect the children from being used as pawns in the adult games of exploitation. Forty-five percent of the total population being teenager, they certainly deserve a special care.
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