RTI reveals high pendency of cases in Juvenile Justice Boards
3 Feb, 2013Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) has released a report "Assam: The State of Juvenile Justice" in which it has presented the sorry state of affairs concerning juvenile justice system in Assam. The data provided in the reply to an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act shows that case pendency before Juvenile Justice Boards (JJBs) in Assam is quite high ranging from 33.3% in Udalguri district to 100% in Dhemaji and Morigaon districts.
The report states that there is shortage of homes for children in need and juvenile delinquents as despite having twenty seven districts, Assam has only four Observation Homes and three Children Homes run by the state. It also says that children are routinely tortured in police custody and juvenile delinquency is on a high in the state. Assam failed to set up seven Open Shelters during 2011 despite availability of funds under the Integrated Child Protection Scheme due to which the Project Approval Board of the Ministry of Women and Child Development declined to accept the request for grants for 3 existing Open Shelters.