The Gazetteers Department

There are five pieces of social legislation in the State, the aim of three of which is to protect children and to prevent juveniles, adolescents and young adults from becoming habitual criminals. They are (1) The Bombay Children Act, 1948;(2) The Bombay Probation of Offenders Act, 1938; and (3) The Borstal Schools Act, 1929. The remaining two viz., the Bombay Prevention of Begging Act, 1959 and the Bombay Habitual Offenders Act, 1959 deal 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 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 The licencing Act is also implemented towards this purpose. Under the provisions of this Act every social welfare institution is required to obtain licence for safeguarding the interests of destitute children, girls, women, etc.

Children Act.

The Bombay Children Act consolidates all previous laws relating to the custody, protection, treatment and rehabilitation of children and youthful offenders and also relating to the trial of youthful offenders. It gives protection to four principal classes of children, viz., (i) those who are neglected, destitute or living in immoral surroundings and those in moral danger; (ii) un-controllable children who have been reported as such by their parents; (iii) children, who have been used for begging and other purposes by mercenary persons; and (iv) young delinquents who either in company or at the instigation of older persons or by themselves have committed offences under 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. 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 considerations. 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, then the children are restored to their parents and placed under the supervision of 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 Institution" includes an institution which in relation to the care of any child, means any association or body of individuals whether incorporated or not, established for or having for its object, reception or protection of children or the prevention of cruelty to children and which undertakes to bring up or to give facilities for bringing up any child entrusted to its care in conformity with the religion of its birth. At these schools or institutions, the children receive formal education and training, according to their individual aptitudes, in carpentry, smithy, book binding, tailoring, agriculture, poultry farming, gardening, cane-work, knitting, etc. Youthful offenders, when implicated in any offence along with adult offender, have to be tried separately in juvenile courts. The technique employed in juvenile courts is entirely different from the one in other courts. Juvenile courts are held in remand homes. Penal terms such as ' sentence ' and ' conviction ' are substituted by the term ' commitment' and the term 'punishment' is described as treatment. The children are regarded as innocents and victims of circumstances or of the wrong treatment received from adults.

Borstal Schools Act.

Adolescent offenders coming under the Borstal Schools Act are sent for detention and naming in the Borstal School, Kolhapur. 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 formal education and are subjected to such disciplinary and formal influences as will be conducive to their reformation. However, hoys 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 prisoner 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 finished 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 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.

Organisation.

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, Pune with a network of affiliated bodies called the District Probation and After-Care Associations. These associations maintain remand homes and after-care hostels and also direct probation officers to make enquiries regarding the home conditions and antecedents of children and to supervise the young persons released either directly by courts or on licence from certified schools and the Borstal School, Kolhapur.

The official agency is the Directorate of Social Welfare, (Correctional Administration Wing) Pune, which works under the administrative control of the Social Welfare Department. The Director of Social Welfare heads the Directorate which is divided in four wings: —

(1) Backward Class Wing—for all backward class welfare activities.

(2) Correctional Administration Wing—

(a) Children Act work (Juvenile branch and State association branch).

(b) Beggars Act work, Habitual offenders restriction work, Bombay Probation of Offenders Act work.

(3) Education and Rehabilitation of Physically Handicapped Wing.

(4) Tribal Research Institute, Research, Propaganda and Statistics.

The Directorate has a Divisional Social Welfare Officer in each of the four revenue divisions of the State. They arc assisted by Social Welfare Officers and Chief Officers under the Bombay Probation of Offenders Act, and Superintendents of remand homes, certified schools, beggars homes, schools for the physically handicapped and institutes under social and moral hygiene programme.

The provisions of the Prevention of Begging Act. 1959. have not so far been made applicable to the district. The Probation of Offenders Act, 1938, is also not functioning in this district.

A remand home was started at Yeotmal from March, 1966. It is functioning under the provisions of the Bombay Children Act and is looked after by the District Probation and After-Care-Association. Grant-in-aid is given by the Directorate of Social Welfare for maintaining the work taken charge of by the remand home authorities. In 1967, there were 50 inmates in the remand home.

TOP