‘Place of Safety’ for children in conflict with law soon

| | Ranchi
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‘Place of Safety’ for children in conflict with law soon

Friday, 19 July 2019 | Kelly Kislaya | Ranchi

The State will very soon get its first 'Place of Safety' an institution which provides a safe place for children in conflict with law who have either committed a certain type of offence or are in a specific age group.

Director of Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS), DK Saxena, informed that the Juvenile Justice Act calls for construction of at least one place of safety for such children who fall under one of the various categories as prescribed in the Act, including such cases where a person who has crossed the age of 18 but was alleged to have committed a crime before attainment of the age and is pending enquiry.

“Legally, we cannot keep such children with other juveniles in conflict with law and thus, there is a requirement of a separate place of safety for them. We do not have any such provision yet but we are working towards starting one soon,” he said.

As per Section 2(46) of JJ Act, 2015, “place of safety” means any place or institution, not being a police lockup or jail, established separately or attached to an observation home or a special home, as the case may be, the person in-charge of which is willing to receive and take care of the children alleged or found to be in conflict with law, by an order of the Board or the Children’s Court, both during inquiry and ongoing rehabilitation after having been found guilty for a period and purpose as specified in the order.

The various categories of children which have to be kept in such place of safety including those in the age group of 16 to 18 who are alleged to have committed heinous offence and are pending enquiry or are found to be guilty in the offence after enquiry and persons above age of 18 who allegedly committed the crime before attainment of the age.

“We are in the process of identifying a place where this place of safety can be made and all the children who fall in such category from across the State can be kept here,” the ICPS director said.

He added, "Once we identify the place, we will then assess the number of such children in State who needs the facility of this place of safety. Later, depending on the need, other facilities like skill development may also be included here to help link to prepare these children for main stream."

At present, 10 observation homes for children in conflict with law are functional in the State.

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