Rape is the fastest-growing crime among juveniles; 86 percent of teens
arrested for various crimes come from poor families, only six percent
were homeless and less than six percent were girls, crime data for the
last 10 years reveals.
Arrests of juveniles in the 16-18
age-group increased 60 percent from 2003 to 2013, the highest among all
three juvenile age groups, according to data from the National Crime
Records Bureau (NCRB), a division of the home ministry.
Juvenile arrests for rape rose 288 percent over this period and arrests for theft increased 68 percent, the data showed.
Contrary
to popular belief that juveniles from broken homes commit the most
crimes, 81 percent of teens arrested in 2013, lived with their parents,
the data revealed.
The figures lend perspective to an unfolding
national debate around a cabinet decision to enact a law that proposes
trying juveniles as adults.
The demand for such a law arose
after a 17-year-old was sentenced to three years in a reform facility
after he and five others gang-raped and battered a physiotherapy student
in a Delhi bus on December 16, 2012.
The proposed law provides
that in the case of heinous crimes committed by adolescents aged 16 to
18, for examination by a Juvenile Justice Board to assess if the suspect
should be regarded as a child or an adult.
Children living with parents committed most crimes
As
mentioned earlier, juveniles living with parents accounted for more
than 80 percent of arrests - 35,244 in 2013, according to the NCRB
report.
No more than 2,462, or six percent, of juveniles arrested in 2013 were homeless and 5,800 lived with guardians.
Seventy-seven percent of juveniles arrested in 2013 belonged to poor families with annual incomes up to Rs 50,000.
As many as 8,392 juveniles arrested were illiterate and 13,984 had gone to primary schools.
When juveniles arrested are beyond the law
As
many as 379,283 minors were arrested in the period 2003-13 under the
Indian Penal Code (IPC) and special and local laws, according to the
NCRB.
In 2013, 28,830 kids between the ages of 16 and 18 were
arrested under IPC and special and local laws, comprising 66 percent of
juvenile arrests in India.
Of 43,506 juveniles arrested in 2013,
1,867 (4.3 percent) were girls. Over 10 years from 2003 to 2013,
357,935 boys and 21,348 girls were arrested.
Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra lead in teen arrests
From 2003 to 2013, Madhya Pradesh reported 75,037 arrests of juveniles followed by Maharashtra with 72,154 arrests.
In
2013, 43,506 juveniles were arrested. Maharashtra, with 8,012 juvenile
arrests, ranked first, followed by Madhya Pradesh (7,365), Tamil Nadu
(3,142), Andhra Pradesh (3,133) and Rajasthan (2,882).
The
number of juveniles arrested on rape charges rose 288 percent, as we
said, from 535 in 2003 to 2,074 in 2013. As many as 10,693 juveniles
were arrested on rape charges over 10 years from 2003 to 2013.
Similarly,
arrests on the charge of assaulting a woman “with intent to outrage her
modesty (section 354 IPC)†and “insult to modesty of women (sec 509
IPC)†rose 117 percent compared to the previous year.
Most juveniles were arrested for theft in 2013: 7,969 of them.
Over to parliament
Parliament will now decide if juveniles can be tried as adults.
One
of the major amendments include removal of a clause in the law that
relates to the trial of a person above the age of 21 years as an adult
for committing serious offences when the person was between the ages of
16 and 18.
The amendment also increases the period of
preliminary inquiry by the Juvenile Justice Board in case of heinous
offences committed by children aged 16 to 18.
The amendment to
the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Bill, 2014, will
be introduced in the current session of Parliament.
(In
arrangement with Indiaspend.org, a data-driven, non-profit,
public-interest journalism platform, with which Chaitanya Mallapur is a
Policy Analyst. The views expressed are personal)
