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TN panel recommends new body, law to manage children in conflict with law
Retired justice of the Madras high court, K Chandra, who was appointed in April by the Tamil Nadu government to study ways to improve the functioning of homes for children in conflict with law, submitted his report to chief minister M K Stalin on Tuesday
Tamil Nadu’s Directorate of Social Defense should be bifurcated, and a new department headed by an IAS officer must be in charge of handling homes for children in conflict with law, a one-man commission has recommended to the state government.
Retired justice of the Madras high court, K Chandra, who was appointed in April by the Tamil Nadu government to study ways to improve the functioning of homes for children in conflict with law, submitted his report to chief minister M K Stalin on Tuesday. “The Directorate of Social Defense should be bifurcated immediately,” justice Chandru has said in his report, which HT has seen.
The commission was formed after six staff were arrested on charges of beating a 17-year-old child in conflict with law, Gokul Sri, to death inside a government observation home in Chengalpattu last December. His mother Priya Palani had suspicions and with the help of Madurai-based NGO Peoples Watch, she demanded an inquiry. The boy had been booked for theft and died on the day he was admitted to the home and enquiries and post-mortem revealed that the staff had beaten him. An all-party meeting was held in Chengalpattu demanding an inspection to be conducted on all Observation Homes by a retired judge of the high court.
In April, a government order was issued that a one-man committee of justice Chandru will go into the working of homes under the Juvenile Justice Act in Tamil Nadu to improve their efficiency.
The state’s directorate of social defense, under the department of social welfare, oversees homes meant for care and protection as well as those in conflict with law. The latter should be operated separately, the justice said. “The new Directorate governing the government homes should be named as Department of Special Services headed by a director who will be drawn from the Indian Administrative Service (IAS). He must be a person who is committed to the cause of child welfare,” he added.
He also recommended the enactment of a law by the state legislature known as Tamil Nadu Board of Special Services for Children (TANBOSS), an autonomous body with a view to administer all the government homes meant for children in conflict with law. “Such legislation alone will bring a lasting peace and solve the problems which have surfaced so far,” the justice said.
Once a child is admitted to these homes, there must be strict segregation based on the age– one group between 13 to 16 and another 16 to 18, the justice has recommended. “Even among the groups, there must be segregation based upon the offences allegedly committed such as petty, serious, or heinous,” he said. Activists have consistently raised the issue of younger children and those with petty offences such as theft grouped together along with older children and those who have committed more heinous crimes such as rape and murder in these homes as being detrimental.
The justice found an increased addiction among children in these homes and has advised for a de-addiction centre for each home and if a child is found to have a drug related problem at the time of admission, they must be immediately sent for treatment. A child in conflict with law who is suffering from mental illness should be treated in a specialised way, he added. “Steps should be taken, by making arrangements with appropriate agencies, to ensure any necessary continuation of mental health care after release,” justice Chandru said. He also advised the government on the structure of this body, besides finding inefficiencies in these homes including of infrastructure, management, health.
Since several agencies are connected to the functioning of these homes such as Juvenile Justice Boards, Child Welfare Committees, District Collectors, Human Rights Commission (both at the Centre and State), a High Court monitoring Committee, the justice recommended that a nodal officer be there to liaison with all of them.
The committee also recommended that the existing structure homes should be pulled down and instead built based on plans by architects so that it “not look like a prison or jail.”
Besides giving appropriate training for recruits, the justice has stated that a full-time post for a psychologist should be created for each Home. Currently, counsellors are brought in on an ad-hoc basis.
The policemen who are drawn from the Special Armed Police should not possess any arms and they should be in plain clothes and before being posted, they should also undergo an orientation with the provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015, he added.
