JUVENILE JUSTICE ACT AND CARE HOMES

To understand the status of children, particularly the girl children, in the environments of a care home in India, one must have a deep insight into "The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2000", and its subsequent amendment in 2006.

This is basically an Act relating to juveniles in conflict with law and children in need of care, protection, treatment and ultimate rehabilitation by catering to their developmental needs through the adoption of child-friendly approaches.

The first category of children are those who are alleged to have committed offences and have not yet completed their eighteenth year of age.

The second category of children in need of care and protection are a varied group comprising of those who are homeless, found begging or are street children or working children, living under threat, who are mentally or physically challenged, who are suffering from terminal diseases or incurable diseases, having no one to support or to look after, whose parents/guardians are incapable of looking after them, who have been abandoned by parents, missing and run away children whose parents can not be located, who have been or are likely to be abused, tortured or exploited for purpose of sexual abuse or other illegal acts, who are vulnerable and likely to be inducted into drug abuse or trafficking and those who are victims of armed conflicts, civil commotion or natural calamity.

And it is the intent of the government to provide for such children as per the provisions of the Act, in children's homes established either by the state government or by voluntary organisations, certified by it. Such a vast and demanding work, but with very little infrastructural support ! Though my experience is limited to two care homes exclusively for the girl children, the first thing that I had noticed even in the initial stages, was the great overcrowding in these homes. The children living there had come from diverse origins and were almost like secluded islands, who needed a little time in settling down before begining to interact positively with others.

I have always considered a house as a physically demarcated space with definite boundaries. When people live in a house, it becomes a home. The inanimate becomes animate. The inhabitants belonging to both sexes are generally of common origin and form a family tree. There is mutual sharing of love, affection, respect and duties among the inmates. A care home has only same sex inmates from diverse backgrounds who form an extended family. The functioning of such a care home is unique and challenging because house mothers/fathers have the dual role of a guardian and administrator whose basis is firmly grounded in the universal concept of CARE (C - concern, A - affection, R - rehabilitation and E - empathy)