Stone pelting, theft and rape top the list of crimes juveniles in Kashmir are accused of, official data reveals.
Of 1823 juveniles lodged in the Kashmir’s lone observationhome at Harwan since 2011, over 1002 have been booked on charges of stonepelting.
Of these, 988 have been bailed out and 14 are still lodgedat the observation home.
Stone throwing is following by charges of theft and robbery228 juveniles were facing in the list of offences.
Out of them 226 have been bailed out and two were at Harwan.
The data further reveals that 142 cases of rape by juvenileshave been reported by the observation home in the last over eight years.
Almost all the countries in the world have a JuvenileJustice system to deal with its young offenders. It was only in Kashmir thatthe minor boys were kept in police lockups until recently.
In 2010 when a wide scale public uprising broke out inKashmir and children found involved in cases of stone pelting were picked up bypolice, the need for having an observation home was felt where children wouldbe lodged and counseled.
Subsequently, an observation home was created in 2011 atHarwan. For two years the home for juveniles was working without any rulesgoverning its functioning.
Later, a law, Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection ofChildren) Act 2013 was created.
This law provides for the development of the system to lookafter the children in need of care and protection as well as for therehabilitation of the juveniles. The law asks for creating observation homes,special homes, shelter homes, and children homes.
According to this law juveniles in conflict with law cannotbe prosecuted as adult criminals in the court of law. It is thus mandatoryunder this law to develop a process that helps to rehabilitate and make futurelives of these children, free from the stigma of past activities.
Since the observation home started functioning, a total of83 cases of kidnapping have been reported.
Similarly, 67 minors have been booked for murder and 66found involved in ‘Quarrel cases’.
Over 42 juveniles have been lodged at the observation homefor having links with the militancy and 25 booked for possession of NarcoticDrugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS).
The data also reveals that 29 juveniles have been lodged inthe home for wrongful restraint, assault on women under section 341, 354 RanbirPenal Code, 25 juveniles in accident related cases and 15 in ‘ exam fraud orcheating’.
A dozen juvenile offenders have been lodged at theobservation home on attempt to murder charges, five for anti national acts, twofor explosives case and five for border cross or criminal conspiracy.
Apart from these offences, some juvenile offenders have beenbooked for other crimes like fire, poison, gambling, attempted suicide andanti-religious offences.A total of 1823 juveniles have been lodged atthe observation, of them 1784 has been bailed out, and 36 are currently lodgedthere.