The Juvenile Justice System In India: Re-viewing Laws, Policies And Programmes For Children In Need Of Care & Protection

Abstract

Juvenile Justice in India for last few decades has been generating bundles of thoughts and ideas. It has consistently seen jurisprudential debates and innumerous legislative developments.  In spite of the fact that the system has been under constant evaluation, experience reveals that the direction and pace of juvenile justice legislations has not been guided by the specific needs and number of children requiring care and protection. Instead, the approach has been fragmented, piecemeal and is based on the pattern of short term vision and goals. As the consequence of this the laws and policies have suffered from the vice of faulty implementation. They have posed several challenges in rendering justice to children. There is a plenty of research, reports, judicial pronouncements echoing this reality. The biggest challenge today is to understand the magnitude and nature of the problems in giving care and protection to the juveniles.  We have to know their specific needs, identify geographical areas of their high concentration, educational background, family situations, peer pressure and other interconnected issues.The present paper builds up on a critical analysis of the existing juvenile justice system, laws, policies, rules along with  common perceptions with specific reference to children who require care and protection. The article highlights the key features of justice system relating to juveniles briefly referring to its history in India. Few suggestions are made in the end to bring uniformity and consistency in implementation so that the beneficiaries are not deprived of their legal entitlements.