BY MONIKA KHURANA.
POLICE VIOLENCE AGAINST STREET CHILDREN IN INDIA
Street children may be categorized as abandoned children and those who have severed all ties with their families and have chosen the street as their home where they seek shelter, livelihood, and companionship. They are entirely on their own, not only for material survival but also psychologically.
India has the largest population of street children in the world. At least eighteen million children live or work on the streets of urban India, laboring as porters at bus or railway terminals, mechanics in informal auto-repair shops; as vendors of food, tea, or handmade articles, street tailors, or as ragpickers, picking through garbage and selling usable materials to local buyers.
To a great extent the issue of street children is closely associated with the process of fast urbanization that has been taking place in the major cities of India. They come to the city with high expectations and full of hopes that they will easily get jobs there and be able to live comfortably with their families. But, except for the fortunate ones, the dream is shattered. Finding it very hard to make both ends meet, they are driven to a life of precarious survival with no place to live and no job to support their family with. They are forced to take to streets as their homes and live on the meagre earnings that they somehow manage by doing various odd jobs.
Street children risk violence at the hands of the authorities much more frequently than other children. Children on the street are beaten, tortured, sexually assaulted, and sometimes killed. Several factors contribute to this phenomenon: police perceptions of street children as vagrants and criminals, widespread corruption and a culture of police violence, the inadequacy and non-implementation of legal safeguards, and the level of impunity that law enforcement officials enjoy. The vulnerability of human rights assumes a traumatic, torturesome poignancy when the violent violation is perpetrated by the police arm of the State whose function is to protect the citizens and not to commit gruesome offences against them.
The most common and pervasive form of abuse street children experience is by the police. Street children are easy targets because they are young, often small, poor, ignorant of their rights, and frequently do not have responsible adults to look out for them. Police also have financial incentives to resort to violence against children. They beat children for their money or demand payment for protection, to avoid false charges, or for release from illegal custody.
Indian street children are routinely detained illegally, beaten, tortured and sometimes killed by police. The police generally view street children as vagrants and criminals. While it is true that street children are sometimes involved in petty theft, drug-trafficking, prostitution and other criminal activities, the police tend to assume that whenever a crime is committed on the street, street children are either involved themselves or know the culprit. So, while the extent of juvenile crime is unknown, the police perception of street children as criminals is common and is a factor that contributes to police abuses against them. Their proximity to a crime is considered reason enough to detain them. This abuse violates both Indian domestic law and international human rights standards.
Police abuse of street children is symptomatic of three problems: the increasing population of street children, the perception of street children as criminals, and the lawlessness of the police. The rising number of street children is linked to India’s burgeoning population growth: eighteen million children are added to the population every year. Rapid urbanization has also contributed to the problem.
Although prohibited under Indian and international law, the illegal detention of street children is common in every part of India. Arbitrary detention is illegal under Articles 21 and 22 of India’s Constitution. Sections 50, 56, and 57 of the Code of Criminal Procedure mandate that no person can be detained in custody without knowing the grounds for arrest, and that a detainee must be presented before a magistrate within twenty-four hours of arrest. Section 160 of the Code prohibits the detention of males under the age of fifteen or females of any age for the purposes of investigation or questioning by the police.
Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and Article 37 of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, prohibit arbitrary detention. India has ratified both. The United Nations Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice, called the “Beijing Rules” because they were drafted in Beijing, state that all juveniles arrested have the right to counsel, notification of charges and the right to have a parent or guardian present at the time of arrest. Both the “Beijing Rules” and the U.N. Rules for Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty state that the human rights of juveniles should be protected and respected while in custody.
The Juvenile Justice Act, which applies to all the states and Union Territories in India except Jammu and Kashmir, does prohibit the detention of “neglected” or “delinquent” juveniles in police lock-ups or jails, but these provisions are routinely ignored by police.
The most common complaint of street children without families is that they are rounded up and locked up by the police for two or three days merely on suspicion. This is done to fill the “quota” which police are expected to do. Younger children are generally not caught; it is the older children the police have their eye on. In the majority of the cases children are detained by police without sufficient cause, for too long, without notification to their parents or guardians, or simply as a mechanism of intimidation. Such detention is often accompanied by brutal interrogations and torture. Illegal conduct by police is rarely prosecuted, even when children die in custody. This impunity contributes to conditions for further police abuse of children.
Additional factors contributing to such practices include police prejudices, poorly paid and trained police forces, and a culture of violence within police departments that fosters abusive behaviour.
Even though these acts are illegal, in reality, most children do not know that their rights have been violated and are intimidated by the police, so they do not complain. For street children who suffer police violence, reporting is seriously hampered by the fact that children must complain directly to the police about police abuse. The threat of reprisals by police is a serious deterrent to any child coming forward to make complaints or testify. Thus, the majority of cases of police abuse of street children go unreported and unsupported. The lack of adequate judicial oversight has further contributed to an environment that allows police to illegally detain, beat, and extort money from street children without fear of scrutiny by the judiciary.
UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD
International law establishes that every person, including children, has the right to protection from physical and mental violence. The protection of children from violence is a key component of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The convention is the most comprehensive treaty on the human rights of children and has been ratified by every country in the world except Somalia and the United States.
Reflecting almost universal consensus on children’s human rights, the convention recognizes that children are entitled to special care and assistance and that the best interests of the child must be a primary consideration in all actions concerning children. Under Article 19 of the convention, youths have the right to protection from “all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation including sexual abuse, while in the care of parent(s), legal guardian(s), or any other person who has the care of the child.” Article 19 of the convention protects youths from private acts of violence and harassment as well as from acts committed by state agents.
REFORMS DULY CALLED FOR
Violence of any type leads to serious mental health consequences and infringes on the right of children to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health and development. Violence against children is intolerable, and it will not end without effective action by the State. States must ensure that violence against children is prohibited by law and such laws strictly enforced. Children and their families must have access to effective mechanisms to file complaints of abuse. Perhaps most significantly, States must address impunity by vigorously investigating reports of violence and ensuring that perpetrators are appropriately punished.
There is a strong need for the State to ensure that children have knowledge and understanding of their basic human rights; investigate police violence against street children, protect children from such violence, and discipline appropriately those responsible; investigate violence against children in both correctional and detention facilities, protect children from such violence, and bring those responsible to justice; and institute training programs for police and staff of correctional and other institutions in handling and treating children, and in the basic human rights to which children are entitled.
Conclusion
Children are a “supremely important national asset” and future resource of mankind and of a nation. The future well-being of the nation depends on how its children grow and develop. Its development with dignity is a matter of great concern throughout the world. Any exploitation of children in any form which has a tendency to exploit them either physically, mentally or otherwise is objectionable. Any attempt in this direction so as to exploit children should be put to an end, to achieve the goal enshrined by Indian Constitution makers, which are reflected in various provisions of the Constitution.
There is a growing recognition in every part of the globe that children must be brought up in an atmosphere of love and affection and with tender care and attention, so that they may be able to attain full emotional, intellectual and spiritual stability. This way they will acquire a balanced view of life with full appreciation and recognition of the role which they have to play in the nation-building process, without which the nation cannot develop and attain peace.