We, the children, must receive protection

A recent investigation has brought to light a troubling issue within India’s prison system – a staggering number of wrongly incarcerated children are being held in adult prisons. A recent iProbono report, based on RTI responses, revealed that nearly 10,000 minors were wrongly locked up in adult prisons between Jan 2016 and Dec 2021. It is very likely that this number doesn’t reveal the entire picture because information was only sought from central and district jails in 28 states and two UTs, and only half of the prisons responded. This is scandalous for a nation that purportedly invests its future in its young.The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2015 states that placing a child in an adult prison is unlawful. As per the Act, a child alleged to have committed an offence, or found guilty of an offence, is to be placed in an appropriate juvenile home – observation home, special home or a place of safety. Commenting on the JJ Act, the Supreme Court in 2005 had said, ‘The Act is not only a beneficent legislation, but also a remedial one. The Act aims to grant the care, protection, and rehabilitation of a juvenile vis-a-vis adult criminals.’ The first objective of the state is the promotion of the well-being of the juvenile, and the second is to bring about the principle of proportionality, by which proportionality of the reaction to the circumstances of both offender and offence, including the victim, should be safeguarded.

The state has failed to implement the law on all counts. Affixing responsibility is critical, as is improving the juvenile corrections system by creating a network of observation homes, special homes and places of safety. Efforts to increase awareness of rights and access to legal aid will help protect rights of such hapless young Indians.