Drug Habits Turning Minors into Criminals

Bangalore: Every crime when caught gets convicted leading to punishment. It even applies when the criminals are young children or minors who have committed serious crimes. They are sentenced under the Juvenile Justice Act. However, now cause for minors to commit crimes seems as a matter of concern for the nation. The country is witnessing an increased number of minor offenders due to their addiction to drugs, which inclines them to commit crimes to keep the habit alive and kicking.

As in the case of Rajeev, a 13 year old boy who was booked for murder at a state-run observation home in 2005 as per the Juvenile Justice Act. Three months later he returned home inclined more towards committing crime. He was wielding his knife with ease, stealing mobile phones and snatching chains, till he was arrested again in 2011 after his mother and brother informed the police about his whereabouts, as reported by Ambika Pandit for TOI.

Now at 19, he is recovering from his drug addiction, the root cause of his crime, at the Sahyog Juvenile De-addiction-cum-Rehabilitation Centre in North Delhi.

The center has about 45 boys between the age group of 9 to 18 years. They all shared the common cause of drug addiction that led to various crimes for which they were caught. Many of these children are from poor or lower middle class families. The condition of these juvenile criminals is adverse as no one has looked into the root cause of the crime and altered their aggression with the assurance to reform.

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