LAW, ORDER AND JUSTICE

DIRECTORATE OF SOCIAL WELFARE (CORRECTIONAL ADMINISTRATION WING AND NON-CORRECTIONAL WING).

Legislation.

In Maharashtra State there are five pieces of Social legislation [There are also following two Children Acts prevalent in the respective Divisions:―

the aim of three of which is to protect children and to prevent juveniles, adolescents and young adults from becoming habitual criminals. The latter three are (1) the Bombay Children Act, 1948 (2) the Bombay Borstal Schools Act, 1929, and (3) the Bombay Probation of Offenders Act, 1938. The remaining two are the Bombay Beggars Act, 1945, for prevention of begging and the Bombay Habitual Offenders' Restriction Act, 1947, dealing with prevention of crime and treatment of offenders. While the Children Act deals with children below 16 years of age, the Borstal Schools Act is applied to adolescents between 16 and 21, and the Probation of Offenders Act provides for offenders of any age, especially those between 21 and 25 and those who have not committed offences punishable with death or transportation for life.

Children Act.

The Bombay Children Act consolidates all previous laws relating to custody, protection, treatment and rehabilitation of children and youthful offenders and also for trial of youthful offenders. It gives protection to the neglected, the destitute or those living in immoral surroundings, or in moral danger; uncontrollable children reported as such by their parents; children, especially female children, used for begging and other purposes by mercenary persons, and to those young delinquents who either in the company or at the instigation of older persons or by themselves have committed offences under the various laws of the land. Such children are taken charge of either by the police or by officers known as probation officers and in most cases are kept in remand homes. A remand home is primarily meant as a place where a child can be safely accommodated during the period its case is being considered and it is also meant to be a centre where a child's character and behaviour can be minutely observed and its needs fully provided for by wise and careful consideration. After enquiries regarding their home conditions and antecedents have been completed, they are placed before special courts known as juvenile courts and dealt with according to the provisions of the Children Act. If the home conditions are found to be satisfactory, and if what is needed is only friendly guidance and supervision, the children are restored to their parents and placed under the supervision of a trained probation officer. If the home conditions are unwholesome and uncongenial the children are committed to institutions known as certified schools or "Fit Person Institutions". "Fit Person" includes any association established for the reception or protection of children. At these schools or institutions the children receive training according to their individual aptitudes, in carpentry, smithy, book-binding, tailoring, agriculture, poultry-farming, goat-rearing, gardening, cane-work, knitting, etc. Youthful offenders, when implicated in any offence along with adult offenders, have to be tried separately in juvenile courts without the paraphernalia of the criminal courts. The technique employed in Juvenile Courts is entirely different from that in adult courts. Juvenile Courts are held in remand homes. Penal terms are avoided, and even the word "punishment" has. been dropped from the enactment in describing the treatment to be meted out. The children are regarded only as victims of circumstances or of adults.

Borstal Schools Act.

Adolescent criminals coming under the Borstal Schools Act are sent for detention and training in the Borstal School, Dharwar. Factory work and agriculture form two main heads of vocational training. Weaving, manufacture of furniture and stationery, and smithy are some of the other vocations taught. The adolescents sent to this school are given such individual training and other instruction and are subjected to such disciplinary and moral influences as will conduce to their reformation. However, boys found to be too incorrigible or unsociable to be kept in the Borstal School are transferred to the juvenile section of the Yeravda prison. Similarly, if the Inspector-General of Prisons thinks that any prisioner in the juvenile section can be better treated to his advantage if he is sent to the Borstal School, he is accordingly transferred. Both juveniles and adolescents, when they have finish-ed a certain period of residence in the institutions to which they are sent and acquired some proficiency in a trade, are released, under a licence as prescribed under the rules, to live in their homes, or if they are destitutes, in "after-care hostels" (institutions "run 'by non-official agencies), under supervision, and efforts are made to find employment for them.

Machinery to Enforce Legislation. Non-official.

For the proper enforcement of the legislative enactments mentioned above, machinery, both official and non-official, is provided. The non-official machinery is provided by the Maharashtra State Probation and After-Care Association, Poona, with a net-work of affiliated bodies called the District Probation and After-Care Associations. These associations provide remand homes and after-care hostels and also direct probation officers to make enquiries regarding the home conditions and antecedents of children and also to supervise the young persons released either directly by courts or on licence from certified schools and the Borstal School, Dharwar,

Official.

The official agency is the Directorate of Social Welfare (Correctional and non-Correctional Administration Wings), Poona. The work under the juvenile branch was transferred from the Education Department to the Labour and Social Welfare Department from the 1st of December, 1956. Later on, from 1st of November 1957 the work under the former Juvenile and Beggars Department and the work under the Backward Class Welfare Department have been combined and a new Directorate of Social Welfare has been established for the State including the integrated areas. There are now the following three Wings of the Directorate of Social Welfare under the control of the Director of Social Welfare:―

(1) Backward Class Wing.- For all Backward Class Welfare activities.

(2) Correctional Administration Wing:―

Children Act work (Juvenile Branch and State Association Branch), Beggars Act work,

Habitual Offenders Restriction work,

Bombay Probation of Offenders Act work.

(3) Non-Correctional Administration Wing:―

(1) Moral and Social Hygiene Programme and other plan schemes including report and research.

(2) Physically Handicapped branch.

The Backward Class Wing is headed by the Joint Director of Social Welfare. The Correctional Wing is headed by the Deputy Director of Social Welfare (Correctional Administration), who is also ex-officio Chief Inspector of Certified Schools, Chief Inspector of Certified Institutions and Reclamation Officer for the respective legislations, viz., (1) the Bombay Children Act. (2) the Bombay. Beggars Act and (3) the, Habitual Offenders Restriction Act. Except the work under the Bombay Probation of Offenders Act, which is controlled by the Home Department at the Secretarial level, all work of the Correctional Administration Wing and non-Correctional Administration Wing is controlled by the Labour and Social Welfare Department through the Director of Social Welfare. The third Wing is headed by the Deputy Director of Social Welfare (for other social welfare activities).

So far as this district is concerned the Beggars Act has been applied only to the Elephanta Caves. There is a Government Leprosy Hospital at Pui (Roha taluka) in the district run by the Directorate of Social Welfare.

Beggars Act. Application of the Children Act and Institutions under it.

The Bombay Children Act, 1948, Parts V and VI, have been made applicable only to the village of Pui, taluka Roha, with effect from 23rd December 1954. Part VII (Youthful Offenders) of the Act has been applied to the entire district. There are no institutions, such as remand home, juvenile court or certified school in this district.

Habitlual Offenders Restriction Act 1947.

The Act has been applied to the district of Kolaba. There are Habitual Offenders no settlements established, hence the settlers are interned and sent to the Bijapur Industrial and Agricultural Settlement, which has been transferred to the Mysore State after the Reorganisation of States.

Bombay Probation of Offenders Act, 1938.

The Act has not vet been made applicable to the Kolaba district.

Institutions under Moral and Social Hygiene Programme.

There is one Reception Centre at Panvel established by Government. It is meant to serve in the field of preventive or rescue work among women and girls and deals with the cases of victimisation and exploitation as also with women and girls released from institutions including rescue homes and correctional institutions. The Reception Centre, Panvel, has been declared as "Protective Home" under the Suppression of Immoral Traffic in Women and Girls' Act, 1956. The maximum accommodation of the Centre is 25. At present (September 1959) there are 7 inmates in the Centre.

TOP