It is pertinent to note that the Parliament in the year 1986 took a bold step towards the welfare of neglected juveniles by passing the Juvenile Justice Act, the main purpose of which was to provide for the care, protection, treatment, development and rehabilitation of neglected or delinquent juveniles. However, the Juvenile Justice Act, 1986 has now been repealed by the passing of Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children Act), 2000. The term neglected juvenile’ as used in the Act of 1986 has now been charged to ‘child In need of care and protection’ in the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of children Act), 2000.4 The definition of ‘child in need of care and protection is so wide as· to include hatred number of children. It is seen that the definition of ‘child in need of care and protection under the Act includes children who are found begging without having any home and any ostensible means of subsistence and is a destitute. These destitute children live and grow in a society where they are neglected and deprived of not only food,. clothing and shelter but also education. They also lack affection, care and guidance from adults. These street children not only live but also work and struggle in situations and circumstances that are not conducive for their growth and development. Since a majority of these children come from poor families who are migrants ·and live in slums or squatter dwellings, therefore, they do not have an equal sharing of socio – cultural and eonomic opportunities for care, protection and socialization. Poverty may be submitted as the primary as the primary cause of growing problem of street children in India. Poverty exposes these children to innumerable problems and as a result the child remains poor throughout the life. These children are not deprived of their rights but are also denied access to education and adequate health care.
UNICEF has defined ‘street children’ as children who live on the streets alone or with -their families, or children who spend· most of their times on the streets to fend themselves return home on -a regular basis). It is stated that while there are no recently published statistics, UNICEF reported that the number of street children in India was as high as 18 million in 2006.
These are the children who are more vulnerable in term of the harm/danger/risk to their right to survival/ development/ participation.
- Homeless children (pavement dwellers, displaced/evicted, etc.)
- Refugee and migrant children
- Orphaned or abandoned and destitute children
- Children whose parents cannot or are not able to take care of them
- Street and working children
- Child beggars
- Victims of child marriage
- Trafficked children
- Child prostitutes
- Children of prisoners
- Children affected by conflict/civil strife
- Children affected by disasters both natural and manmade
- Children affected by substance abuse, HIV/AIDS and other terminal diseases
- Disabled children
- Children belonging to ethnic, religious minorities and other marginalized groups
- The girl child
- The unborn child
- Children in conflict with law (those who commit crime)
- Children who are victims of crime.
Generally, children who are abused, neglected, abandoned and maltreated end up living in the streets. They do not have any other alternative and as such are faced to live their life in the streets. Mostly these children resort to varied odd jobs like rag pickers, shoe shine boys, washing utensils or serving ttea in dhabas or working as fitters etc on workshops or small mechanic shops. These children generally live in groups at construction sites without any habitation facilities. It is unfortunate that inspite of the various constitutional provisions for protecting the tender and young age of children, they continue to live in such deplorable conditions. Therefore, it is submitted that the poverty into which these children are born characteristics child labour.
• Child labour is undoubtedly the worst form of social evil existing in our Indian Society because children are required to work beyond their physical capacity and the number of hours they have to work interferes with their education, recreation and rest. Apart from this the wages that they get are not commensurate with the amount of work done. A major factor leading to child labour is poverty but at the same time equally important is the system that exploits the children and allows them to work. Child labour in India is said to be a product of socio – economic and cultural condition. Anti constitutional polices, inadequate legislative measures and lack of political will have also been considered as important factors responsible for the persistence of this unlawful social evil. In majority of the cases the attitude of parents and their inability to appreciate the Childs educational capabilities and intelligence have been taken as the root cause behind child labour.
• Further, in many cases the poor parents with bad habits and criminal tendencies win the confidence ·of the· child in convincing the child that education could not solve their problems and therefore the child is encouraged to work very early in life. As a result the child is not in a position to enjoy the benefit of state policy for free education to children only by the simple reason that the child cannot afford to miss the wages by going to school for education.
Therefore, as has already mentioned in the previous chapter the parliament enacted the Child labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986 as a step towards concretizing the labour conditions of the child workforce. Next, the definition of ‘child in need of care and protection also includes a child who is being or is likely to be abused, tortured or exploited for the purpose of sexual abuse or illegal acts. It is unfortunate that not only in India but throughout the world children are being exploited and abused. It is said that though we are fortunate to live in a century which recognises the existence of children as being in their own right and not as objects to be treated at will, yet child abuse is rampant.
• Parents and guardians are generally assumed and expected to naturally act in the best interest of the child but it is seen that this is not always so. Since children have no political power and their opinions are not given due weight they are dependent upon the adults and state to protect their rights but when this does not happen there is every possibility of these children being victims of sexual abuse and exploitation. As a result the sexual abuse of children is increasing by the day in every society. Internet has also contributed towards the increase in instances of sexual abuse of children because child sex has turned into global business through internet. It is submitted that the use of children in pornographic literature is also increasing. Newspapers expose only the tip of the ice berg, because the victims and their guardians refrain from reporting cases of sexual abuse because of the shame and guilt associated with it Sexual abuse of children is not only one of the worst forms of exploitation of children but also amounts to the violation of the basic human rights of the child Many other factors are also responsible for the heinous crime of sexual abuse of children. Moral values of men are degrading ‘by the clay because man has become materialistic specially with industrialization and growth of metropolitan cities. As a result incidence of sexual abuse is on the rise. But it is submitted that when the society was a rural one and joint family system existed in majority in every society, incidents of sexual abuse specially rape were negligible.
However, with the decline in the joint family system moral and spiritual values have degraded and the desire for material wealth and enjoyment of life have become the major concern for men. Unimaginable levels of corruption is present in the society. Man wants to have maximum enjoyment at the cost of others. This tendency is said to breed promiscuity and vulgarity, and therefore, in relation to the opposite sex man has become unhealthy and sick.
However, with the decline of moral values in society, and specially in metropolitan cities, females belonging to middle class families come in contact with the upper strata of the society and they desire for material comforts and luxuries beyond their reach.
Consequently, to fulfill such desire they willingly practice prostitution. Also, many a times young girls run away from home either because of poverty or abuse at the hands of the parents only to be abused again in the outside world. Some of these girls also leave home with the hope of making it big in the glamour industry but when they realize it is not possible they are forced to take up prostitution. Therefore, it would not be fair to only blame men for the sexual abuse of children.
Another factor for the ever growing problem of sexual abuse is poverty. Poverty makes children come to big cities from rural area in search of all kinds of odd jobs like domestic servants, servants in hotels, dhabas, offices etc. but in reality what they get is torture, sexual abuse and forced entry into prostitution. However, sexual abuse of children is not only limited at the· hands of the strangers. Nowadays, children are not safe in the hands of their own family members. Many a times children suffer sexual abuse at the hands of family members. As a result of which the child suffers not only physically but psychologically as well. This effects the emotional state of a child because in many cases the child is not able to disclose this to anybody out of fear and also because most of the time the parents would not believe the child. Once child marriages were common in society.
In India the Constitutional provisions contained in Articles 21, 23, 24, 39 (e) promote and protect the interest of children. Apart from the Constitutional Provisions the Immoral Traffic Prevention Act, 1956 lays down provisions for the purpose of dealing with the problem of prostitution. The Indian penal Code, 1860 has also rriade certain acts committed against children as offences punishable in accordance with law.
Addressing the lack of safe shelters for children in conflict with the law, the court urged every state to evaluate the condition of their Child Care Institutions as well as to provide education, healthcare, and proper nutrition to its residents. The court reiterated that government registration in accordance with the provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act was compulsory for child care institutions run by individuals or NGOs to avoid incidents of trafficking or child sexual abuse.
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