How safe are children in their shelter homes?
Anjana Krishnan M
9th Semester Student, B.A.LL.B,
Government Law College, Thiruvananthapuram
The exposition of Cambridge Dictionary on the notion of ‘rehabilitation’ is similar to an action that aids someone to travel back to a good, healthy, or normal life or condition after they have been in prison ,been very ill etc. The act of rehabilitation is a benevolent gesture that helps an individual to rebuild his life back to normal. The aspect of rehabilitation is very vital when it comes to juvenile offenders are concerned. A “child in conflict with law” is not an anti-social element instead the concept means someone who is maintained or identified in engaging or executing a crime, who has not completed eighteen years of age at the time of commission of such offence. A child offender is someone who committed an offence dubiously even without the right frame of mind, what he needs assistance from the hands of law and society in general. The very purpose of the relaxed position conceived by the law, in the case of a juvenile offender is due to the real understanding that a child can act as a catalyst in the holistic fostering of a society and the principles of law believes in the reintegration of a Child’s situation to a healthier and advantageous living and social conditions. In the face of reality, the actual situation that prevails in the rehabilitation of a child offender’s social life situation is deplorable. Relying upon a data published earlier last year by the National Commission for protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) (the peculiarity of this data is still relevant, due to the fact that the situation and the problem still remains the same) in association with the psychiatry department of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, it is shocking to note that almost one of every five inmates in rehabilitation institutions are critically suffering behavioural issues. This very factor makes them highly vulnerable to substance abuse and other criminal activities at the stage of their adulthood. Along with all these maladies there exist institutional exploitations from the persons who are responsible for the running of these shelter homes. So the safety of these children who are in the rehabilitation centers and shelter homes are always under the shadow of doubts.
Key Words: Rehabilitation Centres, Child Rights, NCPCR, Shelter Homes, Juvenile Offenders
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