Meet on juvenile justice
Indore : Supreme Court Juvenile Justice Committee and Madhya Pradesh High Court Juvenile Justice Committee organised the fourth western regional consultation conference on ‘Effective implementation of Juvenile Justice Act, 2015’ and ‘Focus on Integrated Child Protection Scheme status’ at Brilliant Convention Centre on Saturday.
Those who addressed the gathering included MP High Court Chief Justice Hemant Gupta, Supreme Court Judges Justice Deepak Gupta and Justice Madan B Lokur. Free Press brings you excerpts of their speeches.
Understand poor children’s real problems
“We need to understand the actual problems faced by poor children. In a government school, students sat outside and on its walls even after school hours. Being outside with no productive task, they were easily exposed to drugs.
When the situation was analysed, it was found that parents would leave for work and children had nowhere to go after school. So, we started keeping schools open for sports after hours. This gave them a place to play games without getting into addiction. Another important need is their vocational training, which should be started in schools so that students become self-reliant after graduation.”
n Justice Hemant Gupta, MP High Court Chief Justice
Don’t treat adopting parents as disabled
“We must accept our failures. It is only through failures that we learn. We have to understand that an angry mother cannot have a happy child.
Female foeticide means discrimination even before a girl is born. We need to implement child rights. Our aim should be to reduce the number of cases in juvenile courts. I would be very happy if we have fewer cases. We need to bring a major change in the society by changing our views about adoption. If parents are adopting children, it does not mean that they are disabled in any way. Though we have Article 21 A and Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, we all know that problems still continue. Child labour has ended on paper; we all know the reality. Some courts have done a good job by ordering rehabilitation of children. It is very important. We need to examine the realities of people to know the cause behind crimes. I visited a slum and reality baffled me. We need to be sensitive and sensitise the society for making the right decisions.”
n Justice Deepak Gupta, Supreme Court Judge
Control crime against juveniles
“We started organising these conferences because most people are unaware about child rights. We cannot hit or beat a child if they make a mistake.
We must calmly explain the mistake to them and come up with a possible solution. As per the National Crime Record Bureau, 30,000 crimes were committed by juveniles and 90,000 were committed against juveniles in 2017-2018. We must control crimes against juveniles.”
n Justice Madan B Lokur, Supreme Court Judge