Dealing with juvenile delinquency

In the correctional facilities the staff members need to be made more conscious about their duties because if they have an empathetic understanding of the delinquent issues, problems and needs, then things will really improve

A kid, barely into his teens, throwing a stone or a crude explosive device during political agitations is an image that is all too common in the city during political agitations. The street urchins, commonly referred to as ‘tokai’ are recruited by the major political parties to act as foot soldiers in violent political programmes like hartal. Faced by oppressive poverty it is easy to get these kids to join rallies, torch public transports carry and throw bombs which are as much a risk to themselves as to the intended victims. Though street children are paid a small sum of money to carry out such activities but they pay a very heavy price including jail time, injury and death.  The lives of these children are far removed from the ideal childhood envisioned in the Convention on the Rights of the Child.  
 Unfortunately the use of children in conflicts, militancy and war is something that is common in many developing countries. The use of children in war in both combatant and non-combatant roles in not a new phenomenon. For centuries children have been seen action in the battlefields. Many children fought–on both sides– and perished in both the Great Wars. German children and teenage soldiers had to bear the burnt of the Soviet attack as Berlin was falling. But the deployment of children was limited to emergency situations and they were usually placed in reserves and used and part of auxiliary forces.  In the last few decades though there have been systematic and increase use of children as combatants. According to a UNICEF study in 25 countries, thousands of children under the age of 16 have fought in war in the recent years.  One of the main reasons of the deplorable phenomenon is the proliferation of cheap and easy-to-use light automatic weapons. Earlier most war weapons were too heavy and cumbersome for children to use. Even in the ancient days a child with a sabre was obviously no match for a similarly armed adult.
There are other advantages of using children as soldiers. They are easily motivated, follow orders faithfully and many actually do not know the meaning of the word fear in the literal sense of the phrase. Children are often pushed at the front during battles to act as human shields.
Coming back to children being used as violent pawns by the political parties to achieve short term benefits may have disastrous impact on the future of these kids. We have countless children growing up in a culture of violence. They see violence being glamourised on the media and act out their fantasies on the streets. And getting paid to indulge in acts that apparently seems empowering to them. They find an outlet to vent their frustrations caused by poverty and hopelessness of growing up in the slums. These children begin to have a perverted sense of self-worth and the so-called leaders are always there to foment this line of thinking.    
These street kids are growing up being totally desentisised to the gory and gruesome aspects of life. The sanctity of human life fast loses to those who repeatedly indulge in such violence. As adults they are like to emerge as hardened perpetrators of violence. A future where for thousands of men, whose childhoods were brutalised by exposure to and indulgence in mindless arson, violence is a way of life is a prospect that is frightening indeed.
 The state of juvenile delinquency here is reaching epic proportion with the society apparently not willing to understand the continual and serious dangers being rendered to the health, social and moral development of these children.
The number of street children is increasing rapidly in direct proportion with the brisk population growth, urbanization and poverty. The result is that more and more of these children find themselves in conflict with the law for some reason or another. But what we doesn’t realize is that by treating these juvenile in a class with adults, it is creating a never ending breed of hardened criminals that are only a menace to an already crime ridden society.
 The juvenile justice system is a branch of the criminal justice system. The fundamental difference between the juvenile justice system and the criminal justice system is that since its inception the rehabilitation of juveniles is considered to be the primary goal of the juvenile justice system while that for the adults has been retribution. Juvenile courts also tend to consider the background of the offender before passing sentence while the adults are held accountable for their actions regardless of background. But sometimes  these advantages do not exist for the Bangladeshi juvenile delinquents.
There are not only a high number of children in prisons detained in poor conditions but more concernedly, often together with adult offenders and thus extremely vulnerable to abuse and ill-treatment. In addition to all this, there are harrowing reports of torture, serious ill-treatment and sexual abuse of children by officials in the detention facilities and other state institutions that show little regard for the necessity of detaining juvenile separately from adults.
The juvenile justice administration started functioning in Bangladesh with the enactment of the Children Act, 1974 and the Children Rules, 1976. The Children Act was enacted in 1974 and was enforced in 1976 only for Dhaka District and for other districts, it was enforced in 1980. At the same time, according to section 3 of the Children Act, 1974 the first juvenile court was established at Tongi correctional institution in 1978 for male child. But there were no juvenile courts (both male and female child) for other districts in Bangladesh. In fact, there was hardly any focus on the juvenile justice until 1990s in the media, administration and judiciary.
In 1990, after signing the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), 1989 juvenile justice issue was focused by the GOs and NGOs as an international issue. Thereafter, two juvenile courts established at Pulerhat, Jessore in 1995 for male children and the other at Konabari, Gazipur in 2003 for female children. Unfortunately many juveniles are still rotting in jails. In fact hundreds of Bangladeshi children are sent to jail every year and kept with convicted criminals in complete violation of the country's laws according to a recent report published jointly by Save the Children UK and a Bangladeshi human rights group, Odhikar.
According to the law of the land children accused of committing offences should be held either at a correction centre or in a remand home. Unfortunately the government itself violates this law every day while dealing with children being arrested or detained on criminal charges. Another worrisome phenomenon is many political parties use street children for their own narrow political end during strikes, picketing and other violent street protests. There are several ways to prevent the youth from committing crimes. School education plays an important role to teach the right values. There should be more educational books and programmes for the youth to tell them how to distinguish the right from the wrong. Mutual understanding between parents and children is also very important. Parental supervision and guidance are a key factor of self-cultivation. The two generations need to smooth away disagreement. Parents need to spend more time staying with their children.
Parents’ education especially the mother’s education matters a lot in the development of their children behaviour in a positive manner. The common saying that the best school for a child is the lap of a mother still holds true. The authorities should launch awareness programmes for the parents. Teenagers should be provided moral education as well as access to health educational and recreational activities in educational institutions and their neighbourhoods.
Media can play a vital role in order to educate parents and teens towards their moral responsibilities. In the correctional facilities the staff members needs to made more conscious about their duties because if they have an empathetic understanding of the delinquent issues, problems and needs then things will really improve.

The writer is Assistant Editor of The Independent and can be contacted at: [email protected]

 

Dealing with juvenile delinquency

In the correctional facilities the staff members need to be made more conscious about their duties because if they have an empathetic understanding of the delinquent issues, problems and needs, then things will really improve

A kid, barely into his teens, throwing a stone or a crude explosive device during political agitations is an image that is all too common in the city during political agitations. The street urchins, commonly referred to as tokai are recruited by the major political parties to act as foot soldiers in violent political programmes like hartal. Faced by oppressive poverty it is easy to get these kids to join rallies, torch public transports carry and throw bombs which are as much a risk to themselves as to the intended victims. Though street children are paid a small sum of money to carry out such activities but they pay a very heavy price including jail time, injury and death. The lives of these children are far removed from the ideal childhood envisioned in the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Unfortunately the use of children in conflicts, militancy and war is something that is common in many developing countries. The use of children in war in both combatant and non-combatant roles in not a new phenomenon. For centuries children have been seen action in the battlefields. Many children foughton both sides and perished in both the Great Wars. German children and teenage soldiers had to bear the burnt of the Soviet attack as Berlin was falling. But the deployment of children was limited to emergency situations and they were usually placed in reserves and used and part of auxiliary forces. In the last few decades though there have been systematic and increase use of children as combatants. According to a UNICEF study in 25 countries, thousands of children under the age of 16 have fought in war in the recent years. One of the main reasons of the deplorable phenomenon is the proliferation of cheap and easy-to-use light automatic weapons. Earlier most war weapons were too heavy and cumbersome for children to use. Even in the ancient days a child with a sabre was obviously no match for a similarly armed adult. There are other advantages of using children as soldiers. They are easily motivated, follow orders faithfully and many actually do not know the meaning of the word fear in the literal sense of the phrase. Children are often pushed at the front during battles to act as human shields. Coming back to children being used as violent pawns by the political parties to achieve short term benefits may have disastrous impact on the future of these kids. We have countless children growing up in a culture of violence. They see violence being glamourised on the media and act out their fantasies on the streets. And getting paid to indulge in acts that apparently seems empowering to them. They find an outlet to vent their frustrations caused by poverty and hopelessness of growing up in the slums. These children begin to have a perverted sense of self-worth and the so-called leaders are always there to foment this line of thinking. These street kids are growing up being totally desentisised to the gory and gruesome aspects of life. The sanctity of human life fast loses to those who repeatedly indulge in such violence. As adults they are like to emerge as hardened perpetrators of violence. A future where for thousands of men, whose childhoods were brutalised by exposure to and indulgence in mindless arson, violence is a way of life is a prospect that is frightening indeed. The state of juvenile delinquency here is reaching epic proportion with the society apparently not willing to understand the continual and serious dangers being rendered to the health, social and moral development of these children. The number of street children is increasing rapidly in direct proportion with the brisk population growth, urbanization and poverty. The result is that more and more of these children find themselves in conflict with the law for some reason or another. But what we doesnt realize is that by treating these juvenile in a class with adults, it is creating a never ending breed of hardened criminals that are only a menace to an already crime ridden society. The juvenile justice system is a branch of the criminal justice system. The fundamental difference between the juvenile justice system and the criminal justice system is that since its inception the rehabilitation of juveniles is considered to be the primary goal of the juvenile justice system while that for the adults has been retribution. Juvenile courts also tend to consider the background of the offender before passing sentence while the adults are held accountable for their actions regardless of background. But sometimes these advantages do not exist for the Bangladeshi juvenile delinquents. There are not only a high number of children in prisons detained in poor conditions but more concernedly, often together with adult offenders and thus extremely vulnerable to abuse and ill-treatment. In addition to all this, there are harrowing reports of torture, serious ill-treatment and sexual abuse of children by officials in the detention facilities and other state institutions that show little regard for the necessity of detaining juvenile separately from adults. The juvenile justice administration started functioning in Bangladesh with the enactment of the Children Act, 1974 and the Children Rules, 1976. The Children Act was enacted in 1974 and was enforced in 1976 only for Dhaka District and for other districts, it was enforced in 1980. At the same time, according to section 3 of the Children Act, 1974 the first juvenile court was established at Tongi correctional institution in 1978 for male child. But there were no juvenile courts (both male and female child) for other districts in Bangladesh. In fact, there was hardly any focus on the juvenile justice until 1990s in the media, administration and judiciary. In 1990, after signing the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), 1989 juvenile justice issue was focused by the GOs and NGOs as an international issue. Thereafter, two juvenile courts established at Pulerhat, Jessore in 1995 for male children and the other at Konabari, Gazipur in 2003 for female children. Unfortunately many juveniles are still rotting in jails. In fact hundreds of Bangladeshi children are sent to jail every year and kept with convicted criminals in complete violation of the countrys laws according to a recent report published jointly by Save the Children UK and a Bangladeshi human rights group, Odhikar. According to the law of the land children accused of committing offences should be held either at a correction centre or in a remand home. Unfortunately the government itself violates this law every day while dealing with children being arrested or detained on criminal charges. Another worrisome phenomenon is many political parties use street children for their own narrow political end during strikes, picketing and other violent street protests. There are several ways to prevent the youth from committing crimes. School education plays an important role to teach the right values. There should be more educational books and programmes for the youth to tell them how to distinguish the right from the wrong. Mutual understanding between parents and children is also very important. Parental supervision and guidance are a key factor of self-cultivation. The two generations need to smooth away disagreement. Parents need to spend more time staying with their children. Parents education especially the mothers education matters a lot in the development of their children behaviour in a positive manner. The common saying that the best school for a child is the lap of a mother still holds true. The authorities should launch awareness programmes for the parents. Teenagers should be provided moral education as well as access to health educational and recreational activities in educational institutions and their neighbourhoods. Media can play a vital role in order to educate parents and teens towards their moral responsibilities. In the correctional facilities the staff members needs to made more conscious about their duties because if they have an empathetic understanding of the delinquent issues, problems and needs then things will really improve. The writer is Assistant Editor of The Independent and can be contacted at: [email protected]