Building Out a Case for Investing in Juvenile Justice

1. Building Out a Case for Investing in Juvenile Justice 2nd APCJJ 9 May 2015 Phuket, Thailand

2. A juvenile offender could be one of these missing children of India…

3. He/She could be a victim of drugs and substance abuse • A study conducted in 2013 on behalf of NCPCR shows lifetime use of following addictive and psychotropic substances among children aged 5-18 years: • Tobacco (83.2%), alcohol (67.7%), cannabis (35.4%), inhalants (34.7%), pharmaceutical opioids (18.1%), sedatives (7.9%), heroin/smack (7.9%) and injectable substances (12.6%). • Onset of substance use was 1-1.5 years earlier among street children compared to those living at home. • Of the children living at home or on streets, about 18% and 29% respectively indulged in sexual behaviour under the effects of substance, 16.9% and 20% indulged in sexual behaviour in exchange for either substances or money.

4. Nearly half experienced physical and psychological problems related to substance use and a large proportion reported legal problems due to substance use. Most complications were higher among street children and out-of-school children. • Family factors associated with substance use in children were : substance use in a family member (57%); single parent/ broken families/living with relatives/no parents (25%); fights in the family (46.6%); and history of physical/verbal abuse (45.3%). • A large majority (82.4%) reported having close contact with friends who use substances.

5. He/She could be a product of Corporal Punishment • Corporal Punishment is so intrinsic to our culture that we justify it in the name of love for children and make them also believe the same. The moral sense of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ is taught through corporal punishment and thus the cycle perpetuates. • Corporal punishment in school was studied by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights in 2009-10 covering 6,632 children aged 3-17 in seven states. The study revealed: • 99.86% of children had experienced physical or verbal punishment in their school. • More than eight in ten (81.2%) had experienced insults about their mental characteristics or use of derogatory adjectives. • Of 3-5 years old, 65.4% had been beaten with a cane and 60.7% slapped on the cheek. • Of 3-5 years old, 65.4% had been beaten with a cane and 60.7% slapped on the cheek.

6. He/she could be part of the child labour force in the country, but issues such as child labour never figure in the national crime statistics. • He/she could be a victim of any other crime, but the rate of conviction in cases of crimes against children declined from 47.4% in 2001 to 31.1% in 2013.

7. What you just saw is only the tip of the iceberg. In such situations children become even more vulnerable. Many commit suicide or turn into delinquents and come in conflict with the law.

8. Child Suicides • Between 2001 and 2013, there has been a 87.9% increase in cases of suicide among children. • In 2012, the main causes of suicides among children below 18 years of age emerged to be: • Family problems (354) • Failure in examination (226) • Illness (213) • Love affairs (108) Source: ADSI, 2012 and 2013, National Crime Records Bureau

9. Children in Conflict with the Law Source: Crime in India, 2013, NCRB

10. How do we deal with them…

11. The chart shows: • Poor use of dispositional alternatives • No information available on use of counselling, de-addiction programmes, community service etc. • Indeed no information is maintained by the Juvenile Justice Boards on follow-up post release.

12. Juvenile Justice – Is it about criminal justice or social justice? The juvenile justice system in India and many other countries of the world is an offshoot of the criminal justice system. As a result, policy makers and planners have always reflected confusion in the law and its administration, marked by the tension between the protective approach of juvenile justice and the traditional approach of dealing with crime.

13. Even as countries work towards strengthening their juvenile justice legislation and administration and exploring newer tools and techniques for dealing with children in conflict with the law, debates regarding principles of diversion and restorative justice continue. Ignorance about alternative measures has given way to extensive use of detention. Investing in nuclear energy, defence and business have been national priorities in the wake of political and economic crisis across the world. In such situations, children’s rights get severely compromised.

14. What does India invest in child protection… Note: BE – Budget Estimates, RE – Revised Estimates, AE – Actual Expenditure Source: Budget for Children (BfC) Analysis carried out by HAQ: Centre for Child Rights based on the Demands for Grants of MWCD.

15. In the last ten years the average expenditure of the Federal Government on child protection in totality has been under 3 paise out of every 100 Rupees spent by the government. • This covers Juvenile Justice System, child labour and provision for orphan and street children. These low investments result in different financial outlays in different states. The training support is not uniform and the secretariat support to CWC and JJB is limited and most importantly the investment into developing infrastructure is negligible. The percentage share of children’s budget within the Union Budget has been reduced from 4.76% in 2012- 13 to 4.64% in 2013-14” [Department-Related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Human Resource Development, 264th Report, para 3.44, pg.39].

16. UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC Committee) reviewing India’s report observed: “The budgetary allocations do not adequately take into consideration child protection needs. There is also mismanagement of allocated resources, a problem which is exacerbated by high level of corruption and the lack of effective monitoring and evaluation systems”.

17. Sounds Familiar??? Recently in India, while the 300% increase in rapes by juveniles in the last ten years became the headline in national dailies and part of common man’s dinner table discussion, none talked about how much WE as a NATION have invested in juvenile justice.

18. ICPS – the vehicle for implementing juvenile justice • The Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS) is the main scheme which provides the financial resources for implementing various child protection laws, including the law on juvenile justice. • The budget for ICPS continues to remain inadequate and underutilisation of existing funds remains a glaring gap.

19. In 2013-14, not only did the budget estimates for ICPS go down to about 296 Crore Indian Rupees, even the meagre allocations could not be spent by the states. • Although the recent Budget 2015-16 allocates 402.23 Crore Indian Rupees for the ICPS, this is only a 0.5% increase from the allocation made in 2014-15 (INR 400 Crore) and is still short of the requirement as per the revised financial norms set out for the scheme. • As per the revised norms, the cost of setting up a State Child Protection Society (SCPS) in the 35 states, and a District Child Protection Unit (DCPU), a Child Welfare Committee (CWC), a Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) in 675 districts, comes to INR 363.30 Crore. • If the only the recurring costs of other components of ICPS are added, the amount would far exceed the current allocation of INR 402.23 Crore in the Union Budget 2015-16. (For example, Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA), State Adoption Resource Agencies (SARA), Childline mother NGO, Regional Centres of Childline and Childline services on ground, National Institute for Public Cooperation & Child Development (NIPCCD) and its Regional Centres, various institutions for children, non-institutional care other than adoption such as foster care and sponsorship, and the Central Project Support Unit located in the Ministry of Women and Child Development) Source: Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India, Revised Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS), Annexures, pp 76-140, Available on: wcd.nic.in/icpsmon/pdf/icps/final_icps.pdf and Budget for Children Analysis carried out by HAQ: Centre for Child Rights.

20. Governance of Convenience… • In countries where morality guides the sense of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ and is a more cherished value than respect for human rights it is the populist vote that charts the course of governance. • ‘Convenience’ becomes the rule, putting all human rights commitments and international standards and norms at stake. • Retributive measures find place in law and are justified as having a deterrent effect. • Even evidence to the contrary is overlooked. • Research too is diverted in directions that suit public morality. • Even the best of democracies fail the most poor and the vulnerable, especially children who have no political vote.

21. But one argument that will never fail is that in the wake of economic crisis, it is only prudent to invest in prevention of juvenile delinquency, review spending on youth criminal justice systems, and target resources away from detention and towards policies of prevention and diversion. • There is no government that can defy this argument if a strong case is made out.

22. Building a strong case - Guiding Questions… • Is there a clear vision of the outcomes that need to be achieved for children and society? Without a clear picture in mind of what we want to accomplish, youth justice policies are vulnerable to emotion and knee jerk reactions that end up having a negative impact.

23. Is there data to understand what the current system looks like in practice, and to understand the baseline point from which we need to move forward? • Do the existing services deliver value for money to the public? • If no, how do we wish to measure the improvements to be made for the children, the level of security felt by the population and the level of youth crime? • How else do we establish where we want to concentrate our resources? Source: Marianne Moore (2013), International Juvenile Justice Observatory (IJJO), SAVE MONEY, PROTECT SOCIETY AND REALISE YOUTH POTENTIAL, IMPROVING YOUTH JUSTICE SYSTEMS DURING A TIME OF ECONOMIC CRISIS, The European Council for Juvenile Justice White Paper, July 2013. Available on: http://www.oijj.org/sites/default/files/white_paper_publication.pdf

24. Instead of investing in juvenile justice adequately, countries tend to believe that incarceration will achieve the objective of deterrence necessary to achieve the goal of public safety. But there is little evidence to support this contention. In Toronto, Canada, PACT (Participation, Acknowledgement, Commitment and Transformation), a Life Plan Coaching Programme showed that for an investment of $5,000 (Canadian) for turning around the life of one habitual offender it can save society $2 million (Canadian) over the course of the offender’s lifetime. In Estonia, the cost of probation supervision is €30 per month, while the cost of a prisoner is about €300 per month. In Romania, the cost for one probation client is estimated at €143 per year, while the average cost of one prisoner is € 1,685 per year, meaning that probation is at least ten times cheaper than prison. In the USA, the Washington State Institute for Public Policy (WSIPP) found that: • every dollar invested in aggression replacement training was estimated to yield almost $45 in total benefits. • every dollar invested in multi-systemic therapy is estimated to yield almost $28 in total benefits. • Functional family therapy (FFT), with estimated net cost of $2,161 per participant, yielded benefits of $59,067 per participant. • Multidimensional treatment foster care (MTFC) with an estimated net cost of $2,052 per participant, yielded benefits of $87,622. Source: Marianne Moore (2013), SAVE MONEY, PROTECT SOCIETY AND REALISE YOUTH POTENTIAL, IMPROVING YOUTH JUSTICE SYSTEMS DURING A TIME OF ECONOMIC CRISIS, The European Council for Juvenile Justice White Paper, July 2013, IJJO. Available on: http://www.oijj.org/sites/default/files/white_paper_publication.pdf

25. What does it mean for any Department/Ministry to invest in diversion and restorative justice measures?A simple demonstration shows the way out

27. And if that too does not work, then this should… “If children are created in the image of God, then... My God is a Juvenile Delinquent!” Ruzbeh N. Bharucha (2008), MY GOD IS A JUVENILE DELINQUENT, Sainathann Communication.

28. “So how can your GOD be any different?” THANK YOU! Bharti Ali Co-Director HAQ: Centre for Child Rights New Delhi, INDIA www.haqcrc.org bharti@haqcrc.org