Lack of parental care, education, peer pressure lead to juvenile crimes
SHILLONG: Rape tops the category of crime against children, observed Director, Social Welfare H M Shangpliang during the concluding day of the two-day workshop on “Sensitization of Police on Juvenile Justice System” here on Sunday.
Speaking at the workshop, Shangpliang said that as per the police statistics, out of the 90 cases of crime against children reported in 2012, 81 were related to rape cases.
He admitted that there is an increasing trend of crimes committed by children as well as crime against children.
He said that as per the census 2011, the population of children in Meghalaya is 5,55,833 which is 18.74 per cent of the total population of the State.
“Therefore, it is the responsibility of the state government to provide care and protection to these children,” he added.
Shangpliang said that the main reason for the juvenile crimes were lack of parental care, broken homes, lack of education and peer pressure.
He said that in view of this, the Government has adopted several measures to handle the situation. Important statutory bodies like Child Welfare Committee (CWC) and Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) had also been constituted in every district with Chief Judicial Magistrate along with two social workers as members to deal with child protection rights, he added.
In order to reform these children, the Government had provided observation homes, shelter homes and homes run by NGOs where counseling, non-formal education, vocational training and recreational activities were provided during their stay in the these homes, he said.
Shangpliang said that lack of awareness of child issues in the rural areas is one of the challenges of child rights violations where many child abuse cases are not reported and the department is trying its best to bring awareness programmes to the rural areas through various bodies including Aganwadi centres.
Justice S R Sen, Judge, Meghalaya High Court & Chairman, Juvenile Justice Committee, Meghalaya Chapter asked the authorities who implement the Juvenile Justice Act and stakeholders to find out the root cause which forced children to commit crimes so as to find ways to eliminate these causes. He also reminded that awareness should be given to parents to groom their children to be the best asset of the society.
He said the programme was organized with an aim to make Juvenile Justice an important tool to safeguard and protect the rights of children. Justice Sen further expressed that Juvenile Justice deals with children in conflict with law and also with children who need care and protection.