The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Amendment Bill, 2021

03 Aug The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Amendment Bill, 2021

(GS PAPER-2, Policies

Source- The Hindu)

Context:

The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Amendment Bill, 2021, which is presented to amend The Juvenile Justice Act, 2015, has been passed in the Upper house recently.

According to the amendments:

1. In the amendment, District Magistrates have been awarded the power under the Act to ensure its smooth implementation and to garner synergized efforts in favour of children in distress scenarios.

2. The act simply means that DMs and ADMs will have to monitor the functioning of various agencies under this Act in every district- including the Child Welfare Committees(CWC), the Juvenile Justice Boards, the District Child Protection Units and the Special Juvenile Protection Units established.

3. The District Magistrate will also have to find out background checks of the members of CWC, who are usually social welfare activists, including educational qualifications, as there was no such provision.

4. The DMs have to check if there is any criminal backgrounds of the members to ensure that no cases of child abuse or child sexual abuse are found against any member before they are appointed to the committee.

5. The CWCs have to report regularly to the DMs on their activities in their districts.

6. Serious offences will also circumvent offences for which maximum punishment is imprisonment of more than seven years, and minimum punishment is not prescribed or is less than seven years in total.

7. Instead of the court, the District Magistrate will now propose adoption orders.

Significance:

• The changes will increase the power and responsibilities of District Magistrates.

• This also has increased the protection of children at the district level, with suitable checks and balances in place, and will also boost  up the adoption processes in India

What is the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection Act, 2015):

• The Act was introduced in Parliament in 2015 to replace the Indian juvenile delinquency law Care and Protection Act), 2008.

• The act permitted the trial of juveniles in conflict with the law in the age group of 16-18 years as adults in cases where the crimes had to be determined.

• The nature and feature of the crime and whether the juvenile should be tried as a minor or a child has to be determined by a Juvenile Justice Board.

• It received impetus after the 2012 Delhi gang rape in which one of the accused was just short of 18 years, and was therefore tried as a juvenile.

The Act streamlined adoption procedures for orphans abandoned and surrendered children and the existing Central Adoption and Resource Authority has been given the status of a statutory body to enable it to perform its function more effectively.

Download Plutus IAS Daily Current Affairs of 3rd August 2021