Juvenile delinquents

Between 2013 and 2014, the number of juveniles detained in prisons in Lahore rose by approximately 24 per cent, from 1,662 to 2,057 children, according to a recent report. Most of these children’s offences included tresspassing, destructiong of property, physical and sexual assault. A child is subject to juvenile law between the ages of seven and 18. While the reason for such a high number of children in prison is unclear, we should be concerned about the quality of instruction and attention received by them while in detention. Furthermore, there is a need to explore the reasons for such a high number of children in prisons, so as to determine whether this is due to our legal system’s bias against the most vulnerable in society or other factors.

The number of borstal institutions in Punjab is two, with only a percentage of the total number of child delinquents admitted to them. Borstal institutions provide education and corrective training which are critical to modifying child behaviour. It is, therefore, important that the number of institutions be increased to accommodate more. Also, considering the sensitive nature of working with juvenile delinquents, workers in these institutions need to be trained in child and adolescent development, prior to hastily establishing new institutions.

According to UN conventions, children are only to be detained as a last resort and for a minimum period of time. However, our children have been sentenced to serve time for 25 or more years. Similarly, a ‘best interests’ principle is to be deployed when deliberating a decision, which includes taking a child’s background and family history into account. Presumably it would be difficult to find stakeholders who apply such effort to deciding a child’s fate. The country’s child protection laws are outdated and need to be reformed so as to protect the needs of modern-day children and to help the child’s development rather than to punish.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 27^th,  2015.

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