by NUSRAT ARA
My heart sinks as I look at the collage, carried by almost all the local newspapers, of children standing before judges in the local court. Looking forlorn and lost, the children are handcuffed and accompanied by police officials.
The newspapers report that the children were booked on charges of stone pelting. They had been kept in the local police station for a week before coming before a magistrate who directed them to a juvenile home, recently opened due to an outcry by human rights groups and civil society.
Accused of taking part in stone hurling protests, juveniles have been arrested and charged with attempted murder, assault, and rioting. The past three summers of unrest in Kashmir have exposed teenage boys to the discrepancies in juvenile justice laws. Hundreds of children have been incarcerated on alleged charges of stone pelting despite protections under Indian law and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which qualify children under the age of 18 as a juvenile.
Authorities book teenage protestors under the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act of 1978 that allows for detention without a trial for up to two years. Recently, in cases where the accused are arrested for disturbing the public, the detention period has been reduced from the existing one year to three months. In cases where the accused are charged with threatening the security of the state, the detention period has been reduced from the existing two years to six months.
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