DR.

RAM MANOHAR LOHIYA NATIONAL LAW

UNIVERSITY LUCKNOW

SOCIOLOGY -III

A VISIT TO JUVENILE JUSTICE HOME DURING MY INTERNSHIP

WITH NALSA.

Submitted to - Submitted by -
Dr. Sanjay Singh Digvijay Singh
Professor (Sociology) Section: A
Enrollment No: 160101064
BA. LLB. (Hons) Sem-III
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I owe a great many thanks to a great many people who helped and supported me during the
completion of this project.

My deepest thanks to Lecturer, Dr. Sanjay Singh the guide of the project for guiding and
correcting various documents of mine with attention and care. She has taken pain to go through
the project and make necessary correction as and when needed.

I would like to thank Dr. Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University for giving me this
opportunity to work on this project. .

Lastly, I thank my friends for their support, for their help in collecting the material and for
critically going through the project and correcting the mistakes, without whom the project would
have been a distant reality.

I also extend my heartfelt thanks to my family for supporting and guiding me.
Juvenile Justice Homes in India: A Visit

I didn’t ever give this much thought. The fact that I was so fortunate to be born in a family that
was mentally, financially and emotionally stable. Unless, I was first compelled to glimpse into
the deep chasm of reality. I got the opportunity to visit the Juvenile Justice Home named Prayas
Children’s Home in New Delhi during my internship time with NALSA.

The entrance is through a small blue wrought iron door. The boys and the girls sections are
divided. The house structure represents the ancient Indian architecture with a centrally placed
open courtyard surrounded by rooms. These rooms form the hospital, kitchen and school.

The children are divided into two categories:

1. The CNCP represent the ‘Child in Need of Care and Protection’ primarily those picked up by
social workers and police officer’s from streets, illegal work facilities like factories, hotels etc.,

2. The other category represents the CCL ‘Child in Conflict of Law’, those accused or convicted
of committing crimes.

All children receive education and vocational training like carpentry and sewing during their stay
so that they have at least the minimum writing and reading skills. The children are regularly
given a medical examination by a government authorised doctor. This is specifically done in
cases of violence that may occur during fights amongst the children.

They are all taught how to cook, and daily a batch of 10 of them prepare the meals for the rest of
the present children. Their timetable is designed such that they are kept occupied productively
the entire day.
Their mornings begin at 6 am sharp with exercise which is followed by a wholesome breakfast.
The school begins at 10.30 am and goes on till 5 pm. In the course of this, they are taught all the
three languages Hindi, English and Marathi and given physical education training as well.

The Juvenile houses often serve as certified schools of the State Government. The evenings are
spent in recreational activities and end with dinner and lights out at 10 pm.

The stark truth to be noted though, is that most of the children at such institutions are from
impoverished and downtrodden sections of the society. They lack proper parental guidance and
education owing to which they get easily swayed into vagrancy and the pernicious seductions of
vices.

Most of these children are drug addicts, alcoholics and petty crime offenders. I remember
reading about one CCL, at the probation office. His father had died a few years back, motherless,
he was bought to Bombay by his paternal aunt. She was a commercial sex worker and he would
live off on odd jobs. It was here, that he entered into the wrong crowd and committed some
serious offences. A weak socio-economic background is hence, the main cause of juvenile
delinquency.

Although it is commendable that the government has provided such facilities for the
development of the children even in juvenile houses, a serious fallacy to be noted, is that these
children are given absolutely no psychological training or counselling during their sentence or
stay, such that they do not fall back into the same vicious circle of crime.

These notions were echoed by a particular Board member of this institution as well. It is
heartrending to learn that there doesn’t seem any promising progress on this in the future as well.

Even more pitiable is the fact that the government allocates only Rs. 639 per child as monthly
maintenance for everything from food, clothing, education, medical need etc.
Is the system then really reforming them? We follow the reformative theory of punishment,
but how effective is it being in such a case? They are simply kept in these remand houses until
their sentences end. What is the point of this? What is the use of such institutions, if the
reformation and eradication of juvenile delinquency is not done from the very roots?

The United States of America must in fact must be lauded for their efforts in this arena. Adoption
of techniques such as the ‘focus groups’ help these children understand the magnitude of their
crimes, accept it and learn to fight the societal embarrassment there are various innovative
methods adopted.

A study shows that ‘focus groups’, confirmed that isolation and lack of activity remained key
factors impacting negatively on the mental health of children, despite the prison having one of
the highest levels of purposeful activity.

Conclusion

Lastly, due to no efficient mechanism to deal with social reintegration, most of these children fall
back into the same patterns. Therefore, it is imperative that progressive correctional home
reforms in the above stated areas take place, for the holistic development of these children.

The society must also be sensitized towards this issue. Some of these Juvenile homes accept
donations in the form of clothes, books and stationary. I hence, strongly urge that every reader of
this blog makes an effort to aid these institutions in every possible way. I will soon be organising
a donation drive for books and clothes to these institutions myself. Anyone who would be
interested in donating, is welcome!