Training programme for Juvenile Police Units commences
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, September 11 2014: A three day Training Programme for the Juvenile Special Police Units of Imphal East and Imphal West commenced today at State Bal Bhawan, Khuman Lampak, Imphal.

The training programme is organised by the Department of Social Welfare under the sponsorship of the State Institute of Rural Development (SIRD) .

The opening day of the three days training programme was attended by Joint Secretary of Social Welfare Department H Rupachandra Singh, Director of Social Welfare Department Dr Rangitabali Waikhom and Deputy Director of Social Welfare Department Th Joychandra Singh as the chief guest, president and guest of honour respectively.

While speaking as the chief guest of the function H Rupachandra said that the training programme has been organised to train the concerned authorities pertaining to the ways of treatment and reformation of the under 18 teens who have involved in criminal activities.

Joint Secretary of Social Welfare Department, H Rupachandra

He further asserted that juvenile cases, in earlier days, were treated in the same way as any other adult or mature criminal cases.

They were remanded in the same lockups where the adult criminals were remanded.

Treatment of juvenile cases like genuine criminal cases had led to destruction of children's career and life which could have been reformed.

Since the Juvenile Justice Act was passed by the Indian parliament, new provisions have been added to help juvenile accused through reformation and rehabilitation.

There were cases of child trafficking where children were rescued from Singapore and Bangalore who were taken there for employment in business establishments as labourers.

Parents of these children were misguided by some NGOs or pseudo mission workers in the name of free education.

The rescued children are being provided free education, note-books and school uniforms.

On the basis of the guidelines of the Juvenile Justice Act, if a child gets caught for his/her involvement in criminal cases, he /she would be kept under observation instead of cells or lockups so that the children can be reformed psychologically and bring back the wayward children to the mainstream, he added.

While giving his presidential speech during the function, Th Joychandra Singh said that there are different provisions and special juvenile police units to tackle juvenile cases.

It also helps the children who were involved in criminal activities to reform themselves, who would otherwise become real criminals.

Guest of honour of the function, Dr Rangitabali Waikhom said that the training programme has been organised specially for the Imphal East and West District Juvenile Police Units.

The units have been established under the concerned district police stations on the basis of Juvenile Justice Act.

The setup has been established in each police stations to tackle selected juvenile cases.

The training programme has been organised to provide a safety net for such children by holding detailed discussions on the rules and objectives of the Juvenile Justice Act, she added.

During the technical session of the function, Programme Officer (CNCP) of State Child Protection Society, Sandhyarani Mangshatabam spoke on the Introduction of ICPS and its service delivery structures.

Also, president CORE, Debabrata Roy Laiphungbam spoke on Child Rights: UNCRC perspective and Human Defender Indigenous perspective while Nandini Thokchom spoke on Analysis of Children in Manipur.

Significantly Manipur has seen a number of crimes committed by minors in the last few years.

A number of crime committed by youngsters has been reported in the State dailies and many had expressed deep concern over the growing crime rate amongst minors.