Juvenile home in dock after inmate complains of thrashing by seniors

A juvenile delinquent got beaten at a Delhi government home in Central Delhi for complaining against his seniors, forcing the Juvenile Justice Board to ask the police to register a case against home's superintendent. Chetan Chauhan reports.

Updated on: Sep 1, 2010, 24:22:29 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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A juvenile delinquent got beaten at a Delhi government home in Central Delhi for complaining against his seniors, forcing the Juvenile Justice Board to ask the police to register a case against home's superintendent.

The boy, whose name has been withheld, had complained to the board on August 23 about the corporal punishment meted out by older children to him at a juvenile home run by an NGO Prayas at Delhi Gate. The board had then asked the superintendent of the home to inquire and submit a report.

But, the complaint became a reason for further torture, which the board described as "beyond" its comprehension.

The home's superintendent Bupinder Kumar denied the boy's charge in his report on August 25. Kumar said contrary to the charges, the boy's health had improved at the home. He said the boys' weight had increased from 30 kg to 40 kg. "As a juvenile he told lie for release. No elder children tease and beat him," his report said.

When the child was asked about what had happened, he initially retracted his earlier complaint. "The body language of the boy betrayed his statement and he seemed terrified," the board said, while calling the boy to the judge's chamber for further questioning.

After some counselling, the boy broke down and revealed his trauma. Soon after reaching the home, the board's order was handed over to a senior boy, identified as Bhaiya, who chased the victim to a carom room.

"Bhaiya started beating me. He held my head between his legs and beat me on my head with his elbow. He warned me that if I said anything against him or any other boys, they will not spare me," he said.

He was also forced to rub his nose on the ground in front of Bhaiya and seek an apology. After Bhaiya left, others in the room kept beating him till he agreed to retract his complaint before the board. The beating resulted in the boy's hand and head getting injured and severe beating marks on his back.

In its order, the board said the aim of the home is to provide protection to neglected children.

"The board feels ashamed in having failed to ensure the safety and protection of the child," the board said, while pointing out that the "ghastly treatment" has been meted out by a person who was supposed to protect him under law.

The board under the Juvenile Justice Act has decided to ask the local police to register a case of torture against the superintendent and has asked a Delhi High Court committee to look into functioning of the home.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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