Regret and hope mould juvenile offenders

New Delhi: “I never thought he would die. I was mad at him and wanted to teach him a lesson.”
There’s a note of regret in Sonu’s voice as he recalls the moment he attacked another minor in Sangam Vihar. The savage impulse passed but stole everything the 16-year-old held dear. He’s been shut up in an observation home for the past three months. His mother can see him only on Fridays.Friends and the government school he went to are a wistful memory.
Like Sonu, 60,539 juveniles ran foul of the law in 2014. Data with National Crime Records Bureau shows 10,534 of them were aged 12-16 years, and roughly thrice as many 16-18 years.
Beyond the high walls and wire fencing, the observation home is an ordinary building with separate dormitories for inmates aged less than 14 years and more than 14 years. There are playgrounds and the teens have decorated the walls with sketches, mehndi designs and Madhubani paintings.
Sonu “never liked this place” but it’s his home, school, playground and skilling shed rolled into one. He’s reading for Class IX just the way he was when free. “Although I am inside, I have learnt a lot of things my former classmates aren’t aware of,” he says showing his drawing sheets and a chandelier he has made. And he’s also found his calling at the home—he’s learning to play the tabla, and has set his heart on a career in music. “I like my music classes the most.”

It’s quite a transformation for the boy who raged at every rule in the home. “I didn’t talk to anyone. I used to remain all by myself and wanted to get out of here.”
A teacher’s kind words brought him around. “The teacher said if I behaved well and was polite, they would let me go early. I started participating in the class and enjoying it.” He’s also promised his mother to be good.
Living under one roof and charged with every major crime in the book, the teens are well-versed in the alphabet soup of IPC sections. Like Sonu, Kishan (16) is in for “302” (murder). Someone else for “307” (attempt to murder). Kishan killed the man his sister eloped with. “People in my village taunted my parents. When he returned with my sister, I stabbed him in the chest.”
Misplaced priorities, family circumstances, and an exaggerated sense of machismo and honour fuel many of these crimes. Rafeeque, a Class IX student, narrates how he conned a man into driving into a jungle where the older members of the gang thrashed and robbed him of his car. Shiv, another inmate, has been in four times for theft. “He has no one at home except his grandfather, who is not keeping well,” says the home’s superintendent.
With the government preparing a stricter juvenile law, this ‘revolving door’ of frequent detention and release might end. Above the age of 16, minors involved in heinous crime may be tried as adults after a three-month assessment of their capacity to commit crime. But child rights activists say three months is not enough time to judge a person.
Amod Kanth, general secretary of the NGO Prayas, says, the existing law is good enough but needs to be implemented well. Meanwhile, the maximum period of detention can be increased from three to six years. “Let the child be in the juvenile justice system, instead of being transferred into the criminal justice system,” Kanth said.
(Names of the inmates have been changed)