Borstol Schools In India – Is This A Need Of The Hour?

Borstol Schools was an initiative taken under the British Governance in India for the welfare of youth as part of reformation and uplifting the moral and social status of adolescent girls in specific. As part of this various Acts of Reformation were framed which includes U. P. Naik Girls Protection Act, 1929, Bombay Devadasi Protection Act, 1934 and Madras Devadasi Act, 1947. At this instance for the welfare of adolescent offenders the Borstal Schools Act was also instituted in various states, which resulted in the establishment of the first Madras Borstal Schools Act, 1926.

Objective: The main goal of establishing Borstal Schools is to provide care, welfare and rehabilitation to young offenders failing not to provide education, training and enhancing a conducive environment for offending adolescents and kids. This is the place where they are confined away from the regular prison treatment and acts as a reformation center and as an early identification and correction center for prevention of budding criminals. Besides these young offenders are given industrial training to teach them to earn a living through honest ways.

Borstal Schools, in this context, though governed by the Inspector General of Prisons is under the observation of Probationary Officers: Probation Officers are persons appointed under the Tamil Nadu Probation of Offenders Act, 1936 or 1958. Besides, every school has a Visiting Committee with members appointed by the State Government. Not withstanding the Government of India has recently extended the Borstal School Act to Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act, 2000 and established Observation Homes for observing suspected and unconvicted prisoners who are young; however, the Ministry of Women and Child Development is yet to detail on the purpose and activities of these Observation Homes for public awareness. Juvenile Justice Act, 2000 was in fact implemented to extend detention of adults offending and abusing innocent children using various means like physical and mental/ emotional harassment, which is one part of the Act, while the other part of the Act “defines those children involved in conflict with law”. Probationary Officers are assigned various duties of which one of the major responsibilities is Rehabilitation of the prisoners which is the backbone of the System of Probation and the objective of Borstal Schools. They aid in securing education, survival aids, securing shelter and homes for destitute children, settling family problems, arranging medical aid and upliftment of wards and family members of the young offenders, if any on case-by-case basis.

Statistics:

As per 2011 NCRB statistics, there are 21 Borstal Schools in India with a total capacity of 2, 218 students. The schools are located in the following states – Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu with the highest capacity of 667 inmates while the states of Haryana and Himachal Pradesh are the only places where they have facility to lodge female inmates in 3 of their Borstal Schools.

Juveniles Justice Act, 2000: The problem with this Act is how far is this law is being implemented. Any Act or law be the end as is seen there is always room for improvement; however, when an Act of this kind is being implemented, this is done after years of research and experience. The need of the hour is to distinguish, understand, identify and differentiate the two groups of juveniles and group them for lodging in these centers accordingly.

While the Juvenile Justice Act (2000) and the Borstal Act has been instituted, how far are they being implemented in reality is a question of concern for many. In this day of technology children are exposed to two threats: falling prey to cyber bullying, physical (corporal) and mental (emotional) harassment and sexual abuse - rather is better to word as children being "used" and "abused"; and on the other hand, the number of increasing crimes in which children knowingly or unknowingly are becoming a part of getting involved in the conflict of law which are going unnoticed are: bullying and bossing, cyber crimes involving misuse of technology in forms of sms, videos, photos and websites, besides the regular crimes that are usually noticed like petty theft, stealing, robbery and sometimes physical assault.

On the other hand while implementing these laws, what people actively involved in these issues notice are the lack of awareness to distinguish, discern and discriminate children involved in conflict of law and those who are in need of care and home.

Borstol Schools and Observation Homes are the step towards culminating young and budding criminal offenders to make a better society for tomorrow !