Indian Scenario

India has a long history of providing separate treatment for juvenile offenders. Differential treatment for children can be traced as far back as the Code of Hammurabi in 1790 BC, the responsibility for their supervision and maintenance being vested on the family. During the colonial regime, in 1843, the first center for those children, called “Ragged School,” was established by Lord Cornwallis. The period between 1850 and 1919 was marked by social and industrial upheavals. The Apprentices Act, 1850, 2, came into force, which required that children between the ages of 10-18 convicted in courts, to be provided vocational training as part of their rehabilitation process. For the treatment of juvenile delinquents, the next landmark legislation was the Reformatory School Act, 3 1876 and 1897. Under the Act, the court could detain delinquents in a reformatory school for a period of 2-7 years but after they had attained the age of 18 years, the court could not keep them in such institutions. The Act of Criminal Procedure, 1898, provided special treatment for juvenile offenders. The code provided probation for good conduct to offenders up to the age of 21. Thereafter, the Indian Children Act (Indian Jail Committee 1919-1920) came into existence, where individual provincial governments chose to enact separate legislation for juvenile in their respective jurisdictions; provinces of Madras, Bengal, and Bombay passed their own children acts in 1920, 1922, and 1924, respectively. These laws contained provisions for the establishment of a specialized mechanism for the treatment of juveniles.

In post-independence period, the juvenile justice policy in India is structured around the constitutional mandate prescribed in the language of Articles 15 (3), 21, 24, 39 (e) and (f), 45, and 47. International convention, such as the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the UN Standard Minimum Rules for Administration of Juvenile Justice (Beijing Rules), are also considered. The Juvenile Justice Bill (JJB) was first introduced in the Lok Sabha in 1986, and the Central Children Act (CCA) was replaced by the Juvenile Justice Act. The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000, brought in compliance of Child Rights Convention 1989, repealed the earlier Juvenile Justice Act of 1986 when India signed and ratified the Child Rights Convention 1989 in 1992. This Act has been further amended in the years 2006 and 2010. It deals separately with two categories of children. Juveniles accused of a crime or detained for a crime are brought before the JJB, and not in a regular criminal court. The JJB consists of a first-class magistrate and two social workers, at least one of whom should be a woman. A Special Juvenile Police Unit (SJPU) shall be set up in every police station. A child is usually brought before the JJB by a police officer or person from the SJPU. The police have 24 hours to produce a child before the court once he/she is arrested. Once the child has been brought before the JJB. the child is registered into the closest observation home. A probation officer will be deputed as the juvenile’s guidance for the accused. JJB are meant to resolve cases within a 4-month period. Maximum sentence for a juvenile who has broken the law is 3 years in a protective home, no matter how serious the crime is.

The roles of after-care organization is very important. These organizations are for the care, guidance, and protection of juveniles in conflict with law or children in need of care and protection w'ho have completed their terms in the special homes. After-care organization shall enable such children to adapt to the society and encourage them to live a normal life. Based on the resolution passed in the conference of Chief Justice of India 2009, several high courts constituted "Juvenile justice Committees” to be headed by sitting judges of high courts. In India, juvenile delinquency is increasing at an alarming rate. The involvement of the juveniles in serious offenses such as murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, and abduction has raised concerns in the nation. After the December 2012 gang rape in Delhi, many debates and discussions pointed to the softer approach of the Juvenile Justice System to serious offenses. It has been found that the youngsters can be as brutal as the adults, which forced the people to reanalyze the definition and approach to juvenile delinquents in India. Due to access to the Internet, aspirations of adolescents and adults are becoming at par (Ghosh, 2013). The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data indicates that there has been an increase in crimes committed by juveniles, especially by those in the 16-18 years’ age group. There is an increase in number of cases registered against juveniles in conflict with law (Agarwal, 2018). Agarwal found out that from 2005 to 2015, this number has increased from 18,939 to 31,396 (in category of Against Juveniles in conflict with law) and from 1,82,2602 to 2,94,9499 (under total cognizable IPC Crimes). Figures are pretty alarming as far as crime by juveniles under IPC and SLL Crimes by Age Groups and Sex during 2015 under different age categories is concerned. It is evident that involvement of juveniles in the age group of 16-18 years is very high. Various reasons can be cited for this rise in juvenile delinquency. According to the psychiatrists and women' rights activists, easy access to pornography and changing food habits can be attributed as a cause for this change in behavior of juveniles, who show rising involvement in sexual offenses (Mishra. 2013). Youngsters are not able to control their biological impulses prompted by hormonal changes. The family as a basic unit of human society is getting weaker, particularly in urban areas, with lesser family control on children. The community networking and involvement in affairs of individual members has also become slack. Peer groups are becoming less active, with the youth mainly spending time indoors watching television, or playing games on mobile or computer devices. The mind of the youth is a place where a lot of information keeps gathering which may have no substance. There are fewer options of venting out their frustrations and negativities, leading to pent-up teenage aggression.