Visibly Lost Children

"Juvenile Justice" - The term is radical, indeed, in a country where "Justice" itself is an amorphous concept plagued by selection bias in its delivery.

This is why the Juvenile Justice Act is a "progressive" one - it not just underlines the need to deliver justice to those below 18 but also talks of following an empathetic, needs-based, reformist approach by all stakeholders while that is being done. This blog post is a story of a field-visit that my NPA squad undertook officially to get sensitized about the issues confronting the enforcement of this act.

We were asked to go to a prominent bus stand of Hyderabad and spot "Visibly Lost Children". Mr. Isidor Phillip, the social worker who helped us understand the importance of the act, defined them as children whose childhoods have been snatched away and they are left to fend for themselves in an alien environment with no meaningful choice to exercise.

So, off we went, dressed in our civil clothes, with vague notions of poor children in our minds, and a hidden desire to enjoy this day that has been freed of evening outdoor sessions. All of us have seen them - almost naked, lonely children - begging on our street lights, or selling barely-useful Chinese plastic-ware, or just taking care of their younger sibling on the side of the road. What we haven't done is to try talking to them. When we did try to talk - we were in for a surprise.

Visibly Lost Children who would run away
as soon as we asked personal questions

The moment we asked questions pertaining to their personal lives - families, income, etc - the rag picking boys became suspicious and started to run away. Same was the case with the begging children. So sharp was their instinct to sense abnormal interest that some of the children who were loitering around around, would start to gradually walk away as soon as I or anyone else, would approach them. What have we done to these children so as to make them so suspicious to the entire world around them?

After a couple of hours of spotting helpless children, our teams found one child (age around 10 years) working in a restaurant in abysmal conditions and a girl child lost on the bus stand.

I turned my attention to the child labour Hussain, who was apparently sent off by his poor family, living in northern Karnataka as a sort of repayment of his father's debt to the owner of the restaurant. The boy was really shocked and afraid, as any child of his age, surrounded by 10 strangers in a room where a policeman stands guard outside, would be.

A frightened Hussain

 However, as it turned out, while my squad mates discussed the legal implications of the two cases and the steps to be taken further (due to the complete ignorance of the law amongst the local SHO, some of us had to talk tough on him so as to make him understand that these are not simple run-away cases that can be solved with mere verbal police intervention, they needed the intervention from the CWC), I became very good friends with Hussain. It took a few chocolates, a large number of funny games on my touch-screen phone and few witty comments about the obesity of some of my squad mates to finally make him comfortable. That's when he began to talk.



A pic clicked by Hussain

 The boy didn't mince words in saying that he wanted to go home ("ghar jaana hai"). He described how he had his extended family, friends and parents  in his home town, where he attended school. There came a stage where he would not sit quietly while a serious discussion on his case was on, and would take pictures from my phone. This was when he saw some pics of mine in uniform and asked "Tum police hai kya ji?"  (Are you police?). He also asked me "Tumhara jaat kya hai ji?" (What is your caste?). I was taken aback by this question because, no one had discussed religion or caste since we met. I said, I don't know what caste is and asked him what it is. He replied "Main mussalman, jaat toh hota hai na ji sabka" (I am a Muslim and everyone has a caste).
 

It was a tough 2 hour deliberation session with the
 SHO, until he was told about the Govt. Order

Now let me propound upon the quality of enforcement of the Juvenile Justice Act. For any law to be enforced, there should be a person to enforce it and he should atleast know that he is supposed to enforce it. However, when we interacted with the police officials of that prime urban police station, where NGOs like Divya Disha have spent years in spreading awareness about JJA, we found that except the SHO, very few were aware about the law and the role of police under it. This is when Andhra is considered to be one of the better states in the act's enforcement, what is the state in other states can be left to your imagination.
 
The SHO was in favour of dismissing them there and then. Mr. Isidore Philips had to refer to a govt. order of the same year so as to tell the SHO that Child Welfare Committee (CWC) will be the body to decide upon the two cases.  This is the fate of Govt. Orders on the cutting edges of police organisations. When we don't know the law, how can we implement it?
 
This is where the role of IPS officers becomes important. They can actually make the enforcement meaningful, and once the people get a taste of these much-needed laws, they will begin to demand their enforcement. Until that happens, these officers need to act as change agents.  After all, what excuse have we got in not doing the needful here? There will be no political intervention if we take an illegally-employed child labour from a commercial setup and send him home. We dont need extra funds or man-power to do that (especially in the cities where there are umpteen policemen posted in the name of routine protocol duties), all we need is a desire to deliver justice. So rather than waiting for a Supreme Court-driven initiative to reform our entire organisational setup, let us do our bit to deliver better justice while we can with the laws already there with us.

National Police Academy : A Glimpse

Despite the fact that the training regimen in the National Police Academy gives me absolutely no time for myself and the training often deals with things that are of little interest to me, my stay here has come to be characterised by a sustained subtle feeling of self-fulfilment.

This magnificent feeling is somewhere related to the pace with which life in NPA moves. Every single day that I have spent here has had at least three times more action/activities than any other day of my life spent outside. This is evident in the distorted perception of time that I feel here. It is a common experience that while recollecting something about yesterday, I feel as if it happened maybe a week ago!

In the last few days (i.e. the last 3-4 days), that I have spent here there have been so many new experiences that seem to have covered up for a whole month of buzzing activities in my days before joining NPA; I have come to love horse-riding in this time - much of the credit goes to the fact that I found a horse that complements my personality. His name is SaturnGold and is the most muscular horse amongst the 60 odd horses we get. I had morning classes of horse-riding when SaturnGold cantered (and often started galloping) like an uncaring beast.
            
All that swimming that I have done in the last few days has also added to the enthusiasm and jest. The pool is where I can continuously challenge myself to do more laps. This is also the place where new things can be learnt - rolling underwater to finish the laps, to matching up with the instructor who swims twice as fast as me with seemingly half of the effort.

The Un-Armed Combat classes have also spiced up the days with the practice-oriented modules where we get to work our moves on our squad mates and practise different locks, holds and techniques that will be very relevant in the days ahead.

The Public Speaking module was also a refreshing break from the regular routine. The expert who coached us, knew the tricks and I finally ended up working on my articulation skills. It helped me break the monotony of self-loathing about how I have become a nervous wreck as far as public speaking is concerned. I simulated an experience of mine on the national highway connecting Gokarna and Goa, where the S.P. and the D.M. had to negotiate with a group of 500 protesters who had blocked the highway on the pretext of some trade-related demand. It's surprising to see how agile the mind becomes when called upon to do so!

It's always a pleasure to hear our Director V.N. Rai speak. He has the rare ability to sum up a lifetime's worth of experience and knowledge into simple linguistic constructs that are delivered in a matter-of-fact manner. When he spoke about how police can help address not just the police-related problems of the local people, but also the developmental problems - he made us understand how people can be empowered to do their own work.

Finally, the book that I am reading these days (and which should be over by tomorrow) - Lajja by Taslima Nasrin, helps me to fill up the time when the indoor classes are dealing with something less important or trivial.

Life here has given each one of us a distinct and loud message - Stop the habit of stealing time for yourself from the training activities, rather just know that all this time is your own and immerse yourself in them.

Following the law : Really?

Almost every talk in the academy is referred to as "thought-provoking" by the fatigued probationer, compelled to give the vote of thanks. However, there are few speakers who can actually provoke some thoughts in the numbed minds of the IPS probationers.Satheesh Balan was one such rare speaker. A simple man, with a simple, straight-forward understanding of the world (which only a few can afford, because it needs a non-compromising attitude towards a lot of things typically seen as "worth" compromising for), he spoke about the complete lack of sensitisation in Indian police.

Combined with a number of instances from his personal life, both about pre-IPS and post-IPS days, of how police harassment is everywhere and is present in the most innocuous cases which we have come to perceive as harmless routine.

The most provoking aspect of his speech was how difficult it is to challenge the social norms concerning patriarchy and caste hierarchy. Giving his experiences of implementing the Domestic Violence Act and the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act, it was amply clear that there will be occasions when every single individual around an officer will prefer to avoid implementing these laws. It is then that the officer concerned need to ask himself whether he has what it takes to provide justice to the aggrieved even when he has absolutely no support (and often enough, violent opposition) from those around him. It will take officers with conviction and fearless zest who can take pains to make sure that people get what they are legally entitled to, even when their own social setup seeks to keep them perennially deprived.

Today, with laws like RTI, Domestic Violence Act, Juvenile Justice Act, SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act, Panchayati Raj Extension to Scheduled Areas Act, etc. - we have a unique problem at our hands. These laws give the official machinery the teeth to act in a socially progressive and naturally just manner, however what it needs is officers with conviction and guts to do what is written. First of all, these officers need to themselves be sensitised enough as to understand that the time for such progressive legislations has come about. Second, they must have the courage and skills to show the way to others (including, their seniors and peers).

I believe if I can hold myself together and do my bit to this effect, I would die happy.