After three years and a change in the ruling dispensation, the central government managed to push through a vital amendment to the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act, which brings down the age for trying a minor as an adult for serious crimes from 18 to 16 years.
The move to bring younger juvenile offenders to book was a direct fallout of the December 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape in New Delhi, in which one of the accused was a few months short of 18 years when he was booked for the crime. At the time, the law said minors can only be booked and if convicted, cannot be sentenced to more than three years in a juvenile correctional facility.
By the time the amended Act came into force in January this year, the accused had already walked free in December 2015. Since then, Mumbai alone has accounted for six cases of sexual assault where the accused were aged 16 years or younger — the youngest being a 12-year-old boy who was booked on January 29 by the Goregaon police for allegedly molesting his neighbour’s three-year-old daughter.
The cell phone question
The trend has authorities concerned, with police and the legal fraternity blaming a lack of focused sex education and poor parental control for the rising number of cases of minors committing sexual crimes. They point to the easy availability of sexual content on the Internet and the fact that children as young as 11 or 12 are now given cell phones with Internet access by parents.
Speaking to The Hindu, Joint Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Deven Bharti says, “We live in an age where any content is easily available on an Internet-enabled cell phone. Parents need to have better control over what their children access, as pornographic or titillating content arouses curiosity in children which they don’t know how to address. The lack of proper sex education in the school curriculum makes the situation worse. This is something we have observed in most cases we have registered.”
Police officers and lawyers handling cases registered under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act said it has been observed in many cases that the accused showed their victims pornographic content on their cell phones and made them emulate what they saw in the videos.
“The problem is that children today mature very fast, be it physically, mentally or educationally, as everything is out there for them to see. In fact, a government study led to a recommendation recently that said sex education in schools needs to be introduced as early as Class III,” says RU Jha, an Advocate.
Lack of awareness
The other reason behind the occurrence of such crimes is lack of awareness about personal safety among the children who were targeted. According to experts, this is also due to the absence of a proper sex education mechanism, which makes it difficult for victims to differentiate between a ‘good touch’ and a ‘bad touch’.
“It is also important to understand the context in these cases. Gender roles play an important part. If a child grows up seeing women being abused in his house or society, he will think it’s okay to target a girl,” says Dr Nilima Mehta, a professor and consultant in child protection.
The other fact that is a far bigger concern is most accused are dealing with the hormonal rush that comes with teenage, and don’t know that they are committing crimes punishable by law. When they are caught out and the victim’s parents choose to approach the police, they find themselves on the wrong side of the law at a scarily young age.
Dr Mehta says, “The onus here is on the parents. Children might not know laws, but their parents surely do. However, they have grown up in an era where there was a taboo of sorts on parents and children talking about sex, and hence find themselves unable to have such conversations with their own children.”
Crime and punishment
Under the amended Act, a minor accused of serious crimes like rape and murder can be tried as an adult if he is above 16 years. This, however, can only be decided by a committee when his case reaches the trial stage. Anyone under 16 can only be tried as a juvenile. Such accused cannot be arrested or taken into police custody, and can only be sentenced to three years in a juvenile correctional facility.
Experts say the juvenile justice system too needs to be looked at closely. Once incarcerated in a correctional facility, the accused come into contact with other accused minors, and is at the mercy of a system which lacks infrastructure as well as the sensitivity to deal with them. Many of them go on to commit even more serious crimes.
“The accused in the Shakti Mills gang-rape were earlier arrested for theft of railway property and were sent to correctional facilities. They were released after they signed bonds promising to never commit a crime again, and went on to gang-rape two girls,” says Advocate Prakash Salsingikar.
What has the police particularly concerned is only some of the cases that have been registered in the last few months are of ‘touching inappropriately’. The other cases involve penetrative rape, something associated earlier with adults. The fact that boys as young as 15 are committing such crimes is a serious cause for worry, say police.
What is more serious, according to police officers, is that there is no preventive action they can take against such crimes. “What we try to do is to spread awareness at the ground level in collaboration with NGOs, which have better outreach. We have regular meetings with local residents, where we educate parents on concepts like ‘good touch’ and ‘bad touch’. We also have sessions where female officers are sent to schools to educate children on these concepts,” says Mr Bharti.
Dr Mehta agrees that the best way to prevent such cases is awareness. “The responsibility is definitely the family’s first, then the state’s. If you have brought a child into this world, it is your responsibility to make sure that s/he grows up to be a wholesome, responsible human being. If you provide instruments that increase their knowledge, it is also your job to increase their awareness,” she says.
Juveniles booked for sexual assault (last 5 months)
March 2 Two brothers, aged 17 and 12, booked for sexually exploiting their 14-year-old sister for nearly a year. Police said the elder brother would rape the victim while the younger brother would molest her when the siblings were alone at home. |
February 24 16-year-old booked for allegedly molesting his neighbour’s four-year-old daughter at his residence in Shahu Nagar. The accused allegedly took the victim to his house on Wednesday morning, undressed her and touched her inappropriately. The child returned home and told her parents about it, after which they approached Shahu Nagar police station and an offence was registered. |
February 22 Dongri police booked two minors, aged 15 and 16, for allegedly sodomising a seven-year-old boy from their locality. The crime took place when accused and the victim were playing together in their locality. |
February 11 16-year-old held for allegedly raping his 14-year-old female cousin. The incident came to light when the victim became pregnant. |
January 29 A 12-year-old boy booked by Goregaon police for allegedly molesting his neighbour’s three-year-old daughter. He is among the youngest to be booked under the The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012. |
November 8, 2015 Four teenagers, all minors, gang-rape 15-year-old female schoolmate in Malad and record it on video. The clip is shared on WhatsApp and goes viral in the locality. It reaches the victim’s relative, who confronts her. Following this, a police complaint is registered. |
