‘Depressing’, ‘abysmal’ and ‘useless’ ,said a correspondent from Firstpost in his report about the condition of juvenile remand homes in India. Besides the reports of escalating juvenile crime reports from cities around India, the correction homes they are sent to, should come under the scanner as well.
Something worse than the crime itself, is the kind of remand homes that the juveniles are kept in. Instead of providing a caring environment to the children to nurse their minds back to normal life, these remand homes are a euphemism of jail like custodial center. Toilet conditions are sickening, and the cells where they are put up are poorly ventilated.Food constitutes of things that are not eatable Reports say, at times more than sixty inmates, of all age are housed together, leading to sexual abuse of the younger ones! Without proper individual assessment, the inmates are handed over the routine but following that routine and attending all the education classes is at the discretion of the offender.
There are also reports of a drug abuse from one of the remand homes in New Delhi.
Proper counselling and mental health care of the inmates looks like a far fetched dream here. Even the JJ(Juvenile Justice) authority acts as as a mute spectator instead of acting upon it.
The reports are petrifying.
With due respect to the judiciary, and a request to excuse the disgust, I never knew that reprimanding the ones guilty of crime should be so unpalatable? The ill-atmosphere of that place is likely to turn innocent juveniles into criminals. If they had been sent to the ‘correction’ home with even a little chance of coming out better, that hope, should be declare as redundant now. No wonder criminals arrested now had been juveniles from remand homes earlier. Perhaps a juvenile convicted of crime now would emerge as a criminal in the future for sure.
Why is it like that?Whom to point the fingers at, now?
A government reeking of corruption or a failed law system?
Water 