Forget reforms, children are fleeing juvenile homes in Rajasthan

Hanumangarh, Rajasthan: Mukesh Kumar* was clueless until police showed up on his doorstep, wanting to know the whereabouts of his son Mahesh* (17). They told him that Mahesh had escaped from Hanumangarh Correctional Home on May 15, 2024. 

Mahesh was sent to the juvenile home following his arrest under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) a year ago. “Even if he is punished, one day he will be released and will return home. However, if he runs away from there, I do not know what will happen to him. I want my child to be safe as long as he stays in the correctional home. His safety should be ensured there. He should not be able to run away anywhere,” said Kumar, who runs a small grocery shop.   

“I am worried if someone will mislead him to commit another crime or if he will meet with some accident,” Kumar added. 

Along with Mahesh, another three suspected child molesters escaped from the juvenile home. They asked for water from the guard and threw chilli powder at him, before running away. In the last four years, five such incidents have been reported in the Hanumangarh juvenile home.  

According to information gathered from various sources, many similar incidents have been reported from Sriganganagar, Churu, Bikaner, Alwar, Tonk, Ajmer, Bharatpur, Dholpur, Jhunjhunu, Banswara, Jhalawar, Karauli, Jodhpur, Pali, Sirohi, Nagaur and Jaipur. As many as 108 children have fled from Jaipur in the last eight years. Of them, 43 children escaped in just one month.

The battle for supremacy between different groups of children has also turned fatal in the Jaipur juvenile home, where a juvenile delinquent was murdered in May 2022. The boy died due to head injuries in an attack with an iron rod. 

“It is natural for children to make mistakes in childhood. Such children are not called criminals, but are addressed as children in conflict with the law. They are prosecuted under the Juvenile Justice Act. It gives them a chance to improve. In the spirit of reform, children are kept in reform homes. They are provided with good food and counselling, but recent incidents suggest that reform homes need a lot of improvement,” said Advocate Subhash Parihar, a former member of the Juvenile Justice Board in Hanumangarh.

What is even more worrying is that runaway kids are involved in murders and firing in public places. Police investigation revealed that three juvenile delinquents who fled from Jaipur on February 12 were involved in the murder of Sachin Kumar, a scrap businessman in Rohtak, Haryana. Police found out that notorious gangster Lawrence Bishnoi was helping minors escape from juvenile homes so that they could be recruited into his gang.

“After the murder, the children were planning to flee to Nepal. We got a tip-off, which helped us nab them at the Nepal border in the first week of March. Children are yet to be taken to Jaipur for interrogation and are in judicial custody in Haryana. More information will be available only after inquiry. Criminals are taking advantage of the immaturity of these children,” a senior police officer from Jaipur told 101Reporters while speaking to us in June 2024. 

Jaipur Police claimed that a runaway child was involved in the firing at Zee Club in the state capital at the behest of the Lawrence gang. The firing happened when attempts to extort Rs 5 crore from the club owner did not materialise.

Alarm bells

The tendency of children becoming 'dons' in the reform homes of Rajasthan was brought to the notice of the government a decade ago itself. Naval Khan, the then superintendent of the child reform home in Alwar, sounded alarm bells, but his words were not taken seriously.

Currently, the Assistant Director of CRD in Tonk, Khan told 101Reporters that the situation has become worse now. “Children aged above 18 are mostly the culprits in juvenile homes. Many times, when a person is caught after his bail is rejected, he is already 25 or 26. Yet, orders are issued to keep him in a juvenile home. There are also children caught in serious crimes such as robbery and murder. Such children should be shifted to jails, but they are kept in juvenile homes only,” Khan elaborated.

Child rights activist Lata Singh believed that the main reason for children running away was the non-resolution of cases for a long time. Under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, cases should be disposed of in six months, but it is taking years. Long confinement frustrates children. “Even delinquents aged 22 or 23 are lodged in juvenile homes. They take out their anger on small children,” she added.

Taking suo motu cognisance of the incidents of escape, the Rajasthan High Court (HC) on March 20, 2024 issued a notice to the Social Justice and Empowerment Department and the Jaipur Police Commissioner seeking factual reports and information on such incidents that happened in the last five years.

When contacted, officials refused to provide information about the details of the report sent to the HC. However, Lata, who has been working with the police under the Resource Institute for Human Rights, Jaipur, said the HC has been seeking such reports from time to time. “We have also been continuously raising our voice seeking improvement in the condition of juvenile homes. The government claims to be making efforts for comprehensive reforms, but these are only on paper. Nothing happens on the ground.”

She said notorious gangs have gained access to juvenile homes. “Gangsters are instigating children to commit crimes by saying that they will get less punishment.”

According to Lata, children even have access to drugs in reform homes. A video from Bharatpur's juvenile home went viral some time ago, in which children were seen consuming liquor, smoking cigarettes and smack. In the video, children were saying that there was no shortage and that everything they wanted was available. 

“There is a lack of a positive environment for reforming children in juvenile homes. Even though there are arrangements for good food, accommodation and smart TV, they are still hostages,” said Jitendra Goyal, Chairman, Child Welfare Committee, Hanumangarh.

Trial and punishment

As many as 3,887 children have been presented before the Juvenile Justice Board in Rajasthan under Sections 363 and 376 of the Indian Penal Code and various sections of the POCSO Act from January 1, 2019, to December 31, 2023, according to a government reply in the State Assembly. Of them, 850 were convicted, while 1,880 are under trial. The government has not given any information about the rest 1,157, but many of them would have been acquitted or released on bail. 

Of the 3,887 children, 276 were in the 12 to 14 age category, 1,126 children in the 14-16 category and 2,485 in the 16-18 category. Many of the children who were in the 16-18 age group are now more than 18 years old. 

“If a child above 12 years of age commits a crime, he can be prosecuted under the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015. Under this Act, crimes are divided into three categories: minor, serious and heinous. The punishment of children is determined by the category of crime they have committed. Under the Act, a maximum punishment of three years is possible for children from 12 years up to the age of 16, even for heinous crimes," Mohammad Mushtaq Joiya, senior advocate, Hanumangarh, told 101Reporters.

For those in the 16-18 age bracket, sentences can be different. After the Nirbhaya case, the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000, was amended to create a new category of juvenile offenders aged 16 to 18 under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015. Under this, for heinous crimes, children in the 16-18 age group can be tried as adults. Heinous crimes include those crimes in which a minimum punishment of seven years or more can be given. 

Section 21 of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015, reads: “Order that may not be passed against a child in conflict with law — no child in conflict with law shall be sentenced to death or for life imprisonment without the possibility of release, for any such offence, either under the provisions of this Act or under the provisions of the Indian Penal Code (45 of 1860) or any other law for the time being in force.” This means the child cannot be given the death penalty and cannot be sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of release. 

Key suggestions

According to Jitendra Goyal, children in reform homes should be kept engaged through various types of training (for example, computer training) and cultural education.   

Emphasising the need for creative activities, child rights activist Deshraj Singh, currently working with NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan, said: “When incidents of fleeing and fights increased in the juvenile home of Alwar, we connected the children with yoga, computer training and studies. Things began to fall in place since then. Taking note, the then department principal secretary had issued instructions to carry out such activities in the entire state, but no steps were taken in this direction.”

Rajasthan Child Protection Commission former chairperson Sangeeta Beniwal said the government should tighten security and monitoring in correctional homes to prevent children from fleeing and criminal elements from outside from contacting them.

“There is a shortage of security guards in correctional homes. All the security personnel are on contract. They do not care. If the security guards are employed permanently, they will have the fear of losing their jobs if they are negligent and will work responsibly.”

“Children who commit crimes unknowingly and those with a persistent criminal background should be treated separately in reform homes. Both should be counselled separately. Children should be kept busy through awareness or skill development camps because an empty mind is the devil's workshop,” she added.

Parihar, however, said that only police deployment could ensure a safe environment for children. 

Former Hanumangarh CRD Assistant Director Prema Ram told 101Reporters that they were not able to work smoothly as most of the posts in the correctional home were vacant. “The superintendent post remained vacant for 30 months, and was filled only on March 24. At present, the posts of caretaker and lower division clerk are vacant. There are six guard posts, two of which are vacant due to the non-availability of ex-servicemen. Guard appointments should be made permanent,” he detailed when we spoke to him in June 2024.

However, Mukesh Kumar Meena, Former Additional Director, CRD Jaipur, told the reporter in mid-2024 that necessary steps were being taken to deal with the increasing incidents of fleeing. “The state government has sanctioned Rs 65 lakh for repair works. Home guards will be deployed for security. There is also a proposal to raise the height of the boundary walls of reform homes.” 

*Names changed to protect privacy

(Amarpal Singh Verma is a Rajasthan-based freelance journalist and a member of 101Reporters.) 

This story has been produced by 101Reporters, an independent news agency with a network of 3,000+ freelance journalists across the country, in collaboration with Crime & Punishment, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy.