Retired Madras High Court Judge K Chandra, appointed by the Tamil Nadu government in April to study ways to improve the functioning of homes for children in conflict with the law, submitted his report to Chief Minister M K Stalin on Tuesday.
Tamil Nadu’s Directorate of Social Welfare should be bifurcated and a new department headed by an IAS officer should be set up to look after homes for children in conflict with the law, a one-man commission has recommended to the state government.
Retired Madras High Court judge K Chandra, who was appointed by the Tamil Nadu government in April to study ways to improve the functioning of homes for children in conflict with the law, submitted his report to Chief Minister M K Stalin on Tuesday. “The Directorate of Social Defence should be bifurcated immediately,” Justice Chandru said in his report, seen by HT.
The commission was formed after six staff members were arrested for allegedly beating to death a 17-year-old child in conflict with the law, Gokul Sri, in a government home in Chengalpattu in December last year. His mother Priya Palani had suspicions and, with the help of the Madurai-based NGO Peoples Watch, demanded an investigation. The boy had been booked for theft and died on the day he was admitted to the home, and investigations and a post-mortem revealed that he had been beaten by the staff. An all-party meeting was held in Chengalpattu demanding an inspection of all observation homes by a retired High Court judge.
In April, a government order was issued that a one-man committee of Justice Chandru would look into the functioning of homes under the Juvenile Justice Act in Tamil Nadu to improve their efficiency.
The state’s Directorate of Social Welfare, under the Department of Social Welfare, oversees homes for care and protection as well as those in conflict with the law. The latter should be run separately, the judiciary said. “The new directorate for government homes should be called the Department of Special Services, headed by a director 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 that the state legislature enact a law to create the Tamil Nadu Board of Special Services for Children (TANBOSS), an autonomous body to manage all government homes for children in conflict with the law. “Such legislation alone will bring lasting peace and solve the problems that have arisen so far,” the judge said.
Once a child is admitted to these homes, there must be strict segregation based on age – one group between 13 and 16 and another between 16 and 18, the judge recommended. “Even within the groups, there must be segregation based on the offences allegedly committed, such as petty, serious or heinous,” he said. Campaigners have consistently raised the issue of younger children and those with petty offences such as theft being grouped together with older children and those who have committed more heinous crimes such as rape and murder in these homes as detrimental.
The judiciary has noted an increase in drug addiction among children in these homes and has recommended that each home should have a de-addiction centre, and that if a child is found to have a drug problem on admission, he or she must be sent for treatment immediately. A child in conflict with the law who is suffering from mental illness should be treated in a specialised way, he added. “Steps should be taken to ensure any necessary continuation of mental health care after release by making arrangements with appropriate agencies,” Justice Chandru said. He also advised the government on the structure of this body, besides finding inefficiencies in these homes, including infrastructure, management and health.
Since several agencies are involved in the functioning of these homes, such as Juvenile Justice Boards, Child Welfare Committees, District Collectors, Human Rights Commission (both at the Centre and the State), a High Court Monitoring Committee, the Justice recommended that there should be a nodal officer to liaise with all of them.
The committee also recommended that the existing shelters be demolished and replaced with ones designed by architects so that they “do not look like a prison or jail”.
As well as providing proper training for recruits, the Justice Department has said that a full-time psychologist should be appointed to each home. At present, counsellors are brought in on an ad hoc basis.
The policemen, who are drawn from the Special Armed Police, should not have weapons and should be in civilian clothes and should also undergo orientation on the provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015, before being posted, he added.