The state of Arunachal Pradesh is increasingly becoming child unfriendly. The recent infamous Daporijo police station MMS case where two minors were detained, forced to have sex and filmed exposed the scant respect for the child rights law by the state’s law enforcement personnel.
The utter disregard for the provisions of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000 is manifested by the following two recent cases.
In early May 2011, three minors were brought to a police station on the charge of alleged theft at Roing town in Lower Dibang Valley district. One of the minors was an orphan. The minors were detained in the lock-up of the police station. The Officer-in-Charge of the police station reportedly claimed that the minors were detained as their parents refused to take them back immediately and wanted them to spend few more days in detention.
Similarly, in the last week of May 2011, another three minors, aged 15-16 years, (name withheld) were picked up by police on the charge of theft at Roing. The minors were detained at the police station and a first information report No.43/11 U/S 379 IPC was registered against them. The victim were taken into custody and detained at the police station in violation of the Juvenile Justice Act. Later, the minors were released on bail.[1]
The Juvenile Justice Act provides that child offenders cannot be taken into police custody. They have to be immediately produced before Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) who, depending on the evidence, could send them to a juvenile home. Section 10 (1) of the Juvenile Justice Act provides that “As soon as a juvenile in conflict with law is apprehended by police, he shall be placed under the charge of the special juvenile police unit or the designated police officer who shall immediately report the matter to a member of the (Juvenile Justice) Board.”
From the two cases stated above, it suggests that the police are totally ignorant of the provisions of the JJA or willfully violate the law. The reported contention of the Officer-in-Charge of the police station that the minors were detained at the police station as their parents refused to take them back is worrying. While according to the Rules under the JJA, it is provided that the police or child welfare officer dealing with juvenile cases shall not be required to register an FIR or file a charge-sheet, except where the offence alleged to have been committed by the juvenile is of a serious nature such as rape, murder or when such offence is alleged to have been committed jointly with adults.
What is more worrying is the failure to the state government to constitute adequate JJBs and Child Welfare Committees, juvenile homes, among others as required under the JJA. As per information available at the website of the Social Welfare, Women and Child Development Department, JJBs and CWCs were constituted only in 8 districts and there is only one Juvenile Delinquents Home in East Siang District with the total capacity of 20 inmates.
Of late, there has been an increase in crime by juveniles in the state. The lone Juvenile Home with the capacity of just 20 inmates is far from adequate. There are 16 districts in the state.
In the absence of juvenile homes, the juveniles had to be detained at police stations or jails.
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