West Bengal to allow juvenile offenders to serve rehabilitation under parental care

The Bengal government is set to introduce a legal provision that will allow juvenile offenders accused of heinous crimes to serve their rehabilitation under parental care, rather than face imprisonment.

On Sunday, the state launched a "multi-stakeholder consultation" with Unicef ​​and the West Bengal Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (WBCPCR) to introduce "diversion", a concept to protect minors from the regular justice system that has been introduced in juvenile justice. Act (JJA), 2015.

Under the provisions of the JJA, a child accused of committing minor offenses can be "diverted" from due process and rehabilitated with the help of social workers by leaving the child with parents or carers.

Shashi Panja, Minister of State for Women, Child Development and Social Welfare said, "FIRs will not be filed against children who have committed petty and serious crimes. The effort will be to return the children to their families and connect them with various social services and other alternatives to detention. The police will establish general diaries (GDs) and inform the Juvenile Justice Committee."

Shashi Panja, minister of state for women, child development and social welfare, said: "When children are brought to court for minor crimes, there is a lot of psychological trauma and their chances of redress disappear. They often become repeat offenders."

In 2021, an amendment to regulation 18(I) of the JJA also allowed for this "diversion". The facility will only apply to minor offenses (with a penalty of up to three years) and serious offenses (with a penalty of three to seven years), not heinous ones.

In Bengal, the planned rollout follows a three-and-a-half-year pilot project in Jalpaiguri, South 24 Parganas and Murshidabad. Most crimes committed by minors were found to fall into the categories of theft or sex crimes.

Addressing the 'State Consultation on Diversion' event organized by WBCPCR and Unicef ​​on Sunday, Calcutta HC Judge Ananya Bandyopadhyay told District Juvenile Court Judges, "They need your empathy.... Please consider the case of a child with a sensibility at the edge of the law." .

"In the last three years, it has been observed that it is not enough to divert children from police stations and juvenile courts. We need to provide basic services, regular follow-up and psychosocial support," said Mohammad Mohiuddin, Head of Unicef, West Bengal.