Expressing concern over the dangerous trend of increased involvement of juveniles in various crimes against women, a Parliamentary Committee has asked the Government to consider reducing the age of male juveniles from 18 years to 16 years for being tried for such crimes.
Juveniles committed 22,740 crimes in 2010 which increased by 10.5 per cent to 25,125 in 2011. As far as crime against women is concerned, involvement of juveniles has shown an upward trend. Juveniles were involved in 858 cases of rape, 391 cases of kidnapping and abduction of women and 536 cases of molestation in year 2010 which rose to 1,149 cases of rape, 600 kidnapping and 573 cases of molestation in 2011, pointed out the report of the Parliamentary Committee on Empowerment of Women.
The panel feels that the Amendment of Juvenile Justice Act in 2000 which brought age of both male and female juveniles at par as below 18 years has failed to produce desired results. But Justice Verma Committee, which had suggested Amendments to CrPC to check crime against women, was not inclined to reducing the age of juveniles to 16 years, it admitted.
“Notwithstanding this as well as keeping in view the fact that juvenile crimes that too in age group of 16 to 18 years are on the rise, the Committee urges the Government to reconsider the aspect of reduction of age of male juvenile from 18 years to 16 years for the purpose of being tried for crimes against women and offences under various laws of the country,” it recommended.
The Committee also expressed anguish at the tardy progress in the implementation of a scheme to compensate victims of sexual offences, saying the Government has made “no sincere and visible” efforts in this regard. It also criticised the Government for ill-equipped and very few number of Forensic Science laboratories/DNA profiling centres, absence of national database of offenders, insufficient number of judges at district and subordinate courts and non filling of vacancies of judges in High court.
Inadequate police strength, low rate of disposal of cases by police and courts and shoddy investigations lead to acquittal of perpetrators of crime against women, it pointed out. The panel recommended that both Centre and States should act in unison and formulate innovative strategy to resolve and address the deficiencies in the system of administration of justice so that criminals think twice before committing any crime against women.