A Systemic Approach to the Juvenile Justice System in India

a systemic approach to

the juvenile justice system in India Aishwarya Narvekar

I

Kamal

I

Aishwarya Rane

I

Pankaj Yadav

Student document publication meant for private circulation only.

All rights reserved.

contents ACKNOWLEDGMENTS PHASE I : SELECTION • • • • •

National Institute of Design What is the role of a Designer The Team Why Juvenile Justice ?

Systems Thinking and Justice

PHASE II : SECONDARY RESEARCH • • • • • • •

The Juvenile Justice Act Understanding the System General Principles in Care and Protection of Children The Juvenile Justice Board Child Welfare Committee Crimes Against Children Juvenile Case Study

PHASE III : PRIMARY RESEARCH • • • • • • •

Meeting the Stakeholders Observation Homes Research through Design Personas Age Socio Economic Study Insights

PHASE IV : BENCHMARKS • • • •

Manav Sadhana RiverSide School Restorative Circles Slum Soccer

PHASE V : DESIGN INTERVENTIONS • • •

ResQ : a Restorative game Indian Penal Comics Briefs : a guideline for stakeholders

PHASE VI : FUTURE SCOPE • • • • • • •

Community spaces Design Sprint Preventive education End goal game Future observation home Open house Creative workshops

CONCLUSION BIBLIOGRAPHY

ACKNOWLEDMENTS Many people supported us in bringing the project to this level.

We would like to specially thank Ms Panna Momaya, Mr Indrajit, Ms Hemalee Leuva and Justice Satish Vora for taking out the time from their busy schedules and guiding us in our information collection.

We would also like to thank Mr Bansode, the Deputy Chief Officer at Mumbai, and Mr Mehul, the Supritendant at Khanpur, for giving us permission to visit the Observation homes and allowing us to conduct our study.

Ms Sachi Maniar, for her support in learning about the NGO perspective.

Mr Sameer Shukla, Ms Lorraine Gamman and Mr Adam Thorpe for their valuable insights on the academic and social viability of the project.

And lastly, Mr Praveen Nahar and Mr Sahil Thappa, for guiding us throughout this journey.

Phase i: selection

National Institute of Design On April 7, 1958, the Eameses presented the India Report to the Government of India.

The Eames Report defined the underlying spirit that would lead to the founding of NID and beginning of design education in India. Based on the recommendations made in the India Report, the Government of India with the assistance of the Ford Foundation and the Sarabhai family established the National Institute of Design in 1961.

The National Institute of Design is an autonomous institution under the aegis of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India. NID has been declared ‘Institution of National Importance’ by the Act of Parliament, by virtue of the National Institute of Design Act 2014. It is also recognised by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Government of India as a Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation.

National Institute of Design is internationally acclaimed as one of the finest educational and research institutions for Industrial, Communication, Textile and IT Integrated (Experiential) Design.

What is the role of a Designer?

By definition a designer is someone who plans the look of something prior to it being made, by preparing drawings or plans. Here the role of a designer seems to be reduced to somebody who is simply concerned with the aesthetics of tangible products. On the contrary, at NID, we always saw design as a larger discipline; one that intersects, no doubt, with many other fields of study. Perhaps the greatest power we learnt in the study of being a designer, was to be so adaptable that we could fulfill not one but many roles. We research thoroughly when need be, but also do not shy away from the nitty gritties of making and manufacturing a product, be it a piece of clothing or a watch. We are one of the very few disciplines where the ‘Jack of all trades’ is a compliment rather than a curse.

Because design is seen as such a narrow, form driven discipline, many people were confused as to what exactly it was that we wanted to accomplish through systems oriented design. The making of a system is traditionally seen as something managerial; something that would be done by someone with an expertise in the field. Then what role do we play as designers? Do we bring fresh perspective to an otherwise tired system? Or is our job simply to identify ‘designerly solutions’; ones which resulted in the creation of a product or a poster?

Although these questions remained largely unanswered for a great deal of our project, we slowly grew to realise that design extended far beyond simply mass manufacturing products. It extended to experiences, policies, services, infrastructure and many more fields than we could imagine to explore. Our scope of design grew from products to services to systems and even to social design.

It was with this faith and hope that we began this project with the aim to study something much larger than ourselves and see where we could create ripples in the existing ocean.

The strength of a designer lies not solely in his art, but greatly in his empathy.

( L to R) Pankaj Yadav, Kamal, Aishwarya Rane, Aishwarya Narvekar

the team We, the Justice League are a group of four enthusiastic, idealistic design students from National Institute of Design, India. Our aim with this project was to create a social impact through our common passion, Design.

Why juvenile justice?

Saint Augustine of Hippo, an early Christian philosopher, once stated, ‘Punishment is justice for the unjust’. At first this statement sounds nonsensical, even oxymoronic, but the true meaning of it is revealed when we read into his history. Saint Augustine once described and justified a case where an innocent man was punished by the state for a crime he did not commit.* Fast forward to the 21st century, where the Indian Judiciary system follows ‘Let a hundred guilty be acquitted, but one innocent should not be convicted’. This means that the law should not jump to haste to punish the alleged, because in our country, the alleged is ‘innocent until proven guilty’. How did this disparity in thought arise? Where one man declares that punitive measures may be implemented on even an innocent, justified according to him because it acts as a deterrent to the rest of society, and another comes to the realisation that the assumption of guilt in a man does not solve the larger problem of the existence of that crime. How did this even come to be?

A faculty who taught us once at NID, stated in one of his classes that ‘there is no justice in nature’. Knowing that he was a lawyer, it was a shock for our class to hear this from his mouth.

He further went on to recite the tale of how the cuckoo bird throws the eggs out of a crows nest, so that her own progeny may survived and be taken care of by the clueless crow. No force of nature prevents her from committing this sin of killing another animals child and making sure that her child is raised. No force of nature prevents her from doing this sin of killing another animals child.

This disparity leads to criminals being treated in different ways around the world. Where in some places, capital punishment is the chosen path, others opt for quiet incarcerations or even practices that attempt to reform the offender. Within this spectrum, we further chose to work with the Juvenile Justice system, because it seemed to us that it was much more important to perform correct measures on these offenders because of their young age.

systems thinking and justice Systems thinking is a disciplined approach for examining problems more completely and accurately. It allows us to ask better questions and see a situation from various perspectives.

Systems thinking often involves moving from observing events or data, to identifying patterns of behavior overtime, to surfacing the underlying structures that drive those events and patterns. By understanding and changing structures that are not serving us well (including our mental models and perceptions), we can expand the choices available to us and create more satisfying, long-term solutions to chronic problems.

Any system involves an interconnected complexity of functionally related components. With Systems Thinking we learn how parts of an organization interact and impact each other, not how they perform independently.

As part of our Systems Design Project, our topic of consideration is Juvenile Justice System.

Children below 18 years of age who commit an act of crime come under the purview of this system. Our interest in this topic started with the interest in concept of reformation of children who are in Observation Homes. The Juvenile Justice System has been largely inaccessible and lesser known for long. The children who enter this reformation phase re-enter the society as adults for the maximum stay inside is 3 years. This coupled with the recidivism rate proved that the reformation intended has not been happening. This situation and problem intrigued us.

Observation Homes are not an independent institution on its own but the other institutions part of the same system have a major role in how efficiently they function. This made us realize looking at this topic/subject from of Systems POV would lead to a better understanding of the entire System itself and using Systems thinking as a tool we can look at the larger scenario and a pinpoint the pain points in the system.

W Systems thinking plays a major role in our project as we need to understand how the Juvenile Justice System functions and what effect does each element have on the other within the currently established hierarchy. The problem area we started out with is an integral part of a larger system and if we have to target/impact it effectively in any way long term, we first need to understand its co-dependency on other parts and thoroughly understand the complexity of the system.

designer

social innovation

products

systems design service design

sustainable design

Phase ii: secondary research

The Juvenile Justice Act Juvenile by definition is a child who unlike an adult person, having not attained prescribed age, cannot be held liable for his criminal act. This means that when a person of young age commits a crime, it must be assumed that there are many other factors which caused him to commit the action that he is being held responsible for. It presumes that a child, unlike an adult, is affected much more by his surroundings and conditions. Thus, if a child commits a crime, it reveals a larger tear in the fabric of society.

In ancient India, the texts of importance the Vedas, prescribed that if a child below the age of 5 commits a crime, he must not be subjected to any punishment, but should be explained with love and affection. Similarly, if a boy between 5 and 10 years of age commits a crime, it is not he who must be subjected to the punishment but his father and older brothers if any. This goes to show that in the Vedic ages as well, the family and friends were held responsible for any action committed by under age individuals.

The concept of Juvenile Justice was introduced in India in 1897 with the Reformatory school act. This provided financial assistance for reformatory schools for convicted juveniles as an alternative to prison. Thereafter, in 1920, juvenile courts were introduced in the Madras Child Act and then in 1924 in the Bombay Child Act. The Juvenile Justice Act, 1986, was enacted to provide for care, protection, treatment, development and rehabilitation of neglected and delinquent juveniles and for the adjudication of certain matters related to the disposition of delinquent juveniles. It repealed all other Children Acts and provided for a uniform legal framework for the juvenile justice system throughout the country. After this the act was amended 4 times in 2000, 2006, 2012 and 2015. In 2012, the amendment was caused by the Nirbhaya Delhi Gang Rape case, which caused the system to wonder if an adult crime by a juvenile deserved leniency or adult punishment, as said by Maneka Gandhi. This led to the amendment that if a boy under the age of 18 but above the age of 16 commits a heinous crime, he will be awarded an adult punishment beyond 18 years of age. Here we will be referring to the act of 2015.

Juvenile Justice system UNICEF India

State Child Protection Society

2015 Amendment

Juvenile Justice Board

Supreme Court Juvenile Justice Committee headed by The Chief Justice of India

Children in Conflict with Law (CCL)

High Court Juvenile Justice Committee

aided by the Secratariat of the JJC

Child Welfare Committee Integrated Child Protection Scheme

Children in need of Care and Protection (CNCP)

implementation

Police Station

Place of Safety

Special Courts

Observation Homes Probation Officer

Special Homes

DCPU (District Child Protection Unit)

SJPU ( Special Juvenile Police Unit)

After Care Institutions

Child Welfare Officer

atleast one present in every police station

Child Care Institutions

NGOs

Fit Person / Facility

Specialized Adoption Agency

understanding the system Understanding the Juvenile Justice System in India formed a major part of our initial research period. To effectively understand how we can best address the reformation in Observation Homes we first needed to understand system that it is a part of and understand its various complexities and interdependence. During our System Mapping, various stakeholders started to arise, which were in the initial stages unheard off. As we moved ahead with the mapping it was very evident that the whole system dealt with two completely different groups of children in two different ways.

The Juvenile Justice System not only looks /administers over the children who have committed crimes but the children in need of protection, who have been rescued also come under the purview of the system.

The Juvenile Justice ( JJ ) Act classifies these children into two categories – CCL (Children in Conflict with the Law) CNCP (Children in need of Care and Protection) Children in Conflict with the Law (CCL) and Children in Need of Care and Protection (CNCP) both have a different decision-making body.

At the apex of the Juvenile Justice System is the Supreme Court of India Juvenile Justice Committee. The JJC Supreme Court is headed by the Chief Justice of India and decides the themes for the Zonal conferences that happen annually. All the matters pertaining to changes in the system are addressed here.

Every state has its own Juvenile Justice Committee that operates from the High Court and comes under JJC Supreme Court. The JJC of the state overlooks the working of the Juvenile Justice System and all its elements within the state.

The Secretariat of the JJC plays a major role in functioning of JJC in the state.

Juvenile Courts The case proceedings of the Juveniles happen inside the Juvenile Courts. The Juvenile Courts are very different from the normal Courts. The JJ Act calls for a particular code of conduct inside the Court. The atmosphere in the JJ Court should be child friendly and all the decisions taken

should be in the best interest of the child. All the officials in the Juvenile Courts should be in casual clothes and not in uniform and the language used should be understood by the child so as not to intimidate the child.

Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) Juveniles accused of a crime or detained for a crime are brought before the JJB. The Juvenile Justice Board is heads the Juvenile Courts. On the board sits the Principal Magistrate and Two Social workers. The Juvenile Justice Board presides over the proceedings of the JJ Court. A child is usually brought before the JJB be a police officer or person from the Special Juvenile Police Unit (SJPU). Though they have different roles they are required to coordinate for the best interest of the child. When a child has been found guilty of a crime the social workers are vital to deciding the best course of action for the rehabilitation of that child.

Probation Officers A probation officer is an individual who meets with adults or juveniles who have been placed on probation by an order of the court because of a conviction for a criminal offense. A Probation Officer conducts enquiry into the background of juvenile brought to JJB and prepares a Social Investigation Report (SIR) through which the JJB evaluates the case.

Observation homes, Special homes, Place of safety Observation homes usually house the children who have committed an act of crime and have been caught are under trial. Usually the Observation Home Campus also have an on board Juvenile Justice Board.

Special Homes usually house the children who have committed an act of crime and have been convicted.

Place of Safety usually houses the children who have committed an act of heinous crime and have been convicted. Place of safety could be an individual institution or it could also be a section inside the Special Homes.

Child Welfare Committee (CWC) The Child Welfare Committee heads the cases of CNCP children. Each CWC should consist of a chairperson and four members. The chairperson should be a person well versed in child welfare issues and at least one member of the board should be a woman. The CWC has the same powers as a metropolitan magistrate or a judicial magistrate of the first class. A child can be brought before the committee by a police officer, any public servant, a social worker or public spirited citizen, or by the child himself/herself. The purpose of the CWC is to determine the best interest of the child and find the child a safe home.

Child Care Institutions Children in need of care and protection are generally kept in Child Care Institutions. Child Care Institution provides for short and long term care, protection and rehabilitation services.

Children rescued are brought here after going through the CWC. Children here are provided with education and skill development opportunities.

After Care Homes Children who do not have any support outside while leaving any Child Care Institutions after the age of 18 year are supported by After care homes. Persons up to the age of 21 are provided shelter in After-care homes. But if Child Welfare Committee recommends to Director, Social Defense to extend the time limit as per need.

GSCPS Gujarat State Child Protection Society overlooks the functioning of all Child Care homes in the state, CCL and CNCP. They also look at After care Institutions.

ICPS Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS) is a centrally sponsored scheme. Ministry of Women and Child Development is looking after the implementation at national level, at State level Department of Social Justice and Empowerment Department have the responsibility of implementing the ICPS in the State.

District Child Protection Unit (DCPU) The DCPU coordinates and implements all child rights and protection activities at district level.

Ensure that for each child in need of care there is an individual care plan and that the plan is regularly reviewed. Develop parameters and tools for effective monitoring and supervision of ICPS in the district.

Special Juvenile Police Unit (SJPU) According to the JJ Act , Special Juvenile Police Unit has to be constituted in every state. The SJPU are Police officers who are better equipped on knowledge and procedures on how to deal with children who have committed an act of Crime. There has to be atleast one police officer in every station who is trained as SJPU or a Child Welfare Officer.

UNICEF India The juvenile justice system is constantly evolving working closely with UNICEF and it is constantly reorienting itself to respect all the Child Rights.

General principles in the care and protection of children Principle of presumption of innocence: every child will be presumed innocent of criminal intent until the age of 18.

Principle of dignity and worth: All human beings shall be treated with equal dignity and worth.

Principle of participation: Every child shall have the right to be heard and to participate in decisions affecting him. The child’s view shall be taken into consideration.

Principle of best interest: All decisions taken regarding the child should help to develop the child to full potential.

Principle of family responsibility: The primary responsibility of care will be in the hands of biological family or adoptive or foster parents.

Principle of safety: All measures should be taken to make sure that the child comes to no harm.

Positive measures: All resources must be used wisely and positively to provide the child with an inclusive environment.

Principle of non-stigmatising semantics: Accusing words should not be used regarding the child.

Principle of non-waiver of rights: No right of the child will be wavered, even if requested by the child or the person representing.

Principle of equality and non-discrimination: The should be no sex, caste or disability discrimination against a child.

Principle of right to privacy and confidentiality: Every child has a right to retain privacy.

Principle of institutionalization as a measure of last resort: A child shall be placed in the resort only as a measure of last resort.

Principle of repatriation and restoration: Every child in the Juvenile Observation home has the right to be re-united with his parents and restored to his previous socio-economic condition unless this restoration will prove harmful to said child.

Principle of fresh start: All records of the child must be erased except under special conditions.

Principle of diversion: Measures to deal with CCL which do not involve judicial proceedings will be promoted unless in the best interest of the child.

Principles of natural justice: The child will have the right to a fair hearing, rule against bias and the right to review.

The Juvenile Justice Board The JJB consists of a Metropolitan of Judicial Magistrate and two social workers, amongst whom at least one must be a woman. The social workers appointed must be actively involved in health education or welfare of children practising for a minimum duration of 7 years. No member should hold any past record of violation of human or child rights.

There must be at least 2 members of the board to pass any order. In the event of a difference of opinion, the majority shall prevail, if such majority does not exist, then the ruling of the Principal Magistrate will prevail.

The crimes are divided into three major categories, petty crimes, serious crimes and heinous crimes. Heinous crimes are those for which the minimum punishment according to the Indian Penal Code (IPC) is imprisonment for seven years or more. Serious crimes are those for which the punishment according to the Indian Penal Code (IPC) is imprisonment for three to seven years. Petty crimes are those for which the offender can face a maximum punishment of 3 years.

If an inquiry has been started with respect to any person when he was a child, if that inquiry goes on beyond that person turning 18 years of age, then it must continue as it would if the person had remained a child and not as an adult. *This will only change in case of heinous crimes (amendment of 2012), where the offender will undergo an adult punishment beyond 18 years of age.

All procedures and venues must be ‘child friendly’; in that no official should be in uniform and the appearance of the JJB session must not be that of a courthouse.

The board is responsible for ensuring the rights of the child are maintained; directing the Probation Officer; regularly inspecting jails to ensure that no child has been assigned to an adult prison; ensuring the availability of legal aid for the child; to determine whether the alleged was actually a child during the time at which the offence was committed by conducting an inquiry.

A child found guilty of having committed an offence will be sent to an Observation home for a time period as described by the JJB in the order. As soon as he is apprehended, the child must

be placed under the responsibility of a Probation Officer or a Child Welfare officer, who will then conduct a social investigation into the background of said child and present it to the JJB. An inquiry into a child alleged of committing an offence must not exceed 4 months, and extended period of 2 months. The child mustn’t have suffered any ill-treatment from the police or lawyers, in the event that this happens, the JJB must take action against it. In case of a heinous offence being committed by a child above 16 years of age and below 18 years of age; The board must conduct an inquiry into the mental and physical capacity of the child to commit this offence. If the board is convinced that the matter should be handled by the board self, then it will follow the procedure listed under the Code of Criminal Procedure 1973. This means that the child will be placed undertake care of the observation home until the age of 18 and then he will undergo an adult punishment.

The Chief Judicial Magistrate should review the cases every 3 months and in case of pendency of cases, he can order that the JJB to increase frequency of sittings.

The board can; Order the child to go home after an advice or warning Order the child to perform community service Order the child to participate in group counselling sessions Order the parents or guardians to pay a fine Order the child to be released on probation and under the responsibility of a fit person, guardian or parent Order the child to be placed in a fit facility or special home for a time not exceeding three years In addition the board can; Order the child to attend school or vocational training Order the child to attend a therapeutic centre Prohibit the child from visiting certain places Undergo a de-addiction programme No child in Conflict with Law cab be sentenced to death or life imprisonment for any offence.

There mustn’t be any joint proceedings, i.e. the child’s proceedings cannot be with that of an adult. The adult’s proceedings must happen in court.

The child welfare committee The Child Welfare Committee of a state should consist of a Chairperson and four members out of which at least one must be a woman and another should be an expert on matters considering children. All the members must be actively involved in health education any such field or is a practising professional in the field of child psychology. The committee must meet at least 20 days in a month. It has the authority to visit Child Care Institutions and check its functioning and well being. It also directs the Child Welfare Officers or Probation Officers to conduct a social investigation report.

For CCL, the process of rehabilitation and reformation should be undertaken in the Observation Homes. The restoration and protection of children is the prime objective of the Observation Home. In this case, restoration means bringing the child back to his former socio economic background unless it is deemed unfit for the child to go back to it. Reformation means to make changes in the mindsets of the child in order to improve him.

The Child Care Institutions registered under this Act must provide: Basic requirements of food, shelter and clothing Equipment for children with a disability Appropriate education Skill development Life skill education Mental health interventions Recreational activities Legal aid Assistance to obtain a proof of identity

Crimes against children The JJ Act also specifies crimes against children as; Any report in media or publishing, photos or otherwise which reveals the identity of a CCL or CNCP Assault, abuse or willful neglect of a child Employment of a child for the purpose of begging Giving a child any liquor or drug or tobacco Using a child for vending, peddling or smuggling Keeping a child in bonded laboured using his earnings for themselves Surrendering a child for adoption without following the guidelines mentioned in the JJ act Buying or selling of a child for any purpose Submitting a child in child care institution to corporeal punishment Using a child to complete illegal activities Any child who commits any of the above mentioned crimes shall be treated a child in conflict with law.

The State government must create a fund for the welfare and rehabilitation of children dealt with under the JJ Act. Voluntary donations or contributions may be made to the fund by any individual or organization.

case study: ‘nirbhaya’ Delhi gang rape case 2018

the case The 2012 Delhi gang rape case involved a rape and fatal assault that occurred on 16 December 2012 in Munirka, a neighbourhood in South Delhi. The incident took place when a 23-year-old female physiotherapy intern, Jyoti Singh Pandey, was beaten, gang raped, and tortured in a private bus in which she was travelling with her friend, Awindra Pratap Pandey. There were six others in the bus, including the driver, all of whom raped the woman and beat her friend.

Eleven days after the assault, she was transferred to a hospital in Singapore for emergency treatment but died from her injuries two days later. The incident generated widespread national and international coverage and was widely condemned, both in India and abroad.

All the accused were arrested and charged with sexual assault and murder. On 10 September 2013, the four remaining adult defendants were found guilty of rape and murder and three days later were sentenced to death by hanging. On 13 March 2014, Delhi High Court in the death reference case and hearing appeals against the conviction by the lower Court, upheld the guilty verdict and the death sentences.

The juvenile was convicted of rape and murder and given the maximum sentence of three years’ imprisonment in a reform facility. This sparked a lot of controversy in the media as well as the legal society. The fact that an individual who had committed a heinous crime, along with others and still got an easier sentence than the others questioned people’s beliefs in the judicial system.

Allegedly, the juvenile worked as a cleaner in the bus in which the crime was committed, for one of the offenders. When the crime was committed, he was 17 years and six months old, just six months shy of 18 years and adulthood. There have been no public reports of his background or the reformation process, but he is reported now to be working at a restaurant in South India.

The Nirbhaya case is what prompted the 2015 amendment of the Juvenile Justice Act. This new amendment stated that a minor committing a heinous crime would be tried as an adult and then kept in a Place of Safety with other juvenile offenders until the age of 18. At the age of 18 would be sent to jail to serve the rest of his sentence. This amendment also sparked debate from Child Right communities. The argument was that a juvenile of any age committing a crime must be reformed rather than incarcerated.

insights The following passage is from an interview by Huffington Post with Enakshi Ganguly, who runs Haq, a centre for Child Care in Delhi. Haq does counselling for juvenile offenders at the invitation of juvenile homes in Delhi: “Neither Nirbhaya nor her boyfriend had specifically mentioned or indicated anything special about the juvenile – that he was the most brutal, or that he was the one who wielded the rod. It was Ram Singh, the driver and the juvenile’s exploitative employer, who mentioned the juvenile The main evidence presented by the police against the juvenile was a blood-stained shirt, but the shirt was suspected to have been Ram Singh’s, and planted on the juvenile to produce some evidence. Otherwise, there was very little evidence. The Delhi Police did not take his teeth bite sample to check if they matched any of the various teeth bites on Nirbhaya’s body.

There was no matching of his semen from the semen found on Nirbhaya’s clothes or body. By contrast, the DNA samples of fluids found on driver Ram Singh’s and his friend Vinay Sharma’s clothes matched the fluids found on Nirbhaya’s body and clothes. As for the juvenile, even his fingerprint marks were not taken.”

This case hit a little close to home, when it happened and again while we read the reports.

The first reaction of any woman or woman-respecting man we asked about the case was outright hostile towards the juvenile. Admittedly, even we were of the same disposition.

But on further reflection, we were able to see slight faults in both sides of the argument.

We further began questioning the legal and moral issues that came up in the case.

Does only age determine the adulthood of the offender?

Is every child and offender open to reformation and deserving of restoration?

Does an adult crime deserve adult punishment, and if not, why does and adult committing that crime undergo that punishment?

The age for juvenile boys being reduced for this amendment indicates that only young boys are capable of heinous crime. Is this because girls are not capable or not convicted?

Phase iii: primary research

meeting stakeholders To delve further into understanding the system, we decided to meet some stakeholders. It was certainly difficult to get permissions and appointments to meet the people concerned, but thanks to many well-wishers and faculties, we were able to get to the stakeholders. To get an overview, we tried to meet as many different people as possible. As a result, we met: The head of the Women and Child Protection Unit of police, Ms. Panna Momaya, The program manager of the Gujarat State Child Protection Service, Mr. Indrajit, The Advisor to the state from UNICEF, Ms. Hemalee Leuva; and The founder of the NGO Ashiyana, Sachi Maniar.

The insights from these visits are recounted ahead.

Ms. Panna Momaya, ips The head of the District Women and Child Protection Unit in Ahmedabad, Ms Momaya also conducts many talks and workshops in and around Ahmedabad regarding women’s and children’s safety. She was kind enough to spare some of her precious time to induct us into this wide and intricate world of Juvenile Justice. Her insights were one of the very first introduction that we got while understanding this system.

One of our earliest visits, it gave us clarity with respect to terminologies used in the field.

She specifically started out by mentioning the basic working of the system according to the Juvenile Justice Act ( JJ Act ). As we moved ahead with the discussion, it answered a lot of our questions we had with respect to our secondary research. There’s a lot of difference between how a system works on paper and on ground and some of these examples and reasons for it came up in the discussion. Apart from understanding of the point to point working of the system according to the JJ Act, we got to look into a humane perspective of the whole topic, small things like emotional involvement along the officers’ side and small activities conducted changed the attitude of children inside, etc. and how it made a difference in the reformation process in the long run. She also mentioned some preventive measures adopted across the state for prevention of juvenile delinquency and role of the social system in it as well.

The Juvenile criminal system in India today caters mainly to boys under the age of 16 and girls under the age of 18. Most often, the police are the first point of contact between a juvenile and the justice system. Once a child is alleged of a crime or is caught committing an offence, he must be dealt with only by a Child Welfare Officer who are posted in every station. None of the officers carry weapons while dealing with such a child and none are in uniform while doing so.

The reason for this as explained by Ms Momaya is that the child must not feel any extortion or fear towards the system while undergoing this procedure; this can cause a harmful effect to the child’s behaviour and outlook towards the system. If a minor is caught committing a petty offence without the accompaniment of an adult, the police can let him go with a warning, recording his case in the station diary, but if an adult is involved in the crime, then an FIR will be registered against the adult. If the crime is severe but can be let off with the warning, then the child is taken into the JJB where the judge can let him off with a fine, warning or admonition.

In case of a heinous or serious crime, the child will have to attend the JJB hearings until his sentence is served and will then be sent to an observation home.

The Mahila force, or the women’s force of the state is directly under Women and Child Welfare Unit, and thus is in charge of child and women related offenses as well. At her suggestion, we also visited the Mahila Police station at Shahibaug, which deals exclusively with women and child related crimes. We found that the station also housed a children’s room which was used to temporarily house children in need of care and protection or children who had to spend some time in the police station.

Opinions on Juvenile Crimes : Many causes contribute to the amount of Juvenile crime in a place. While researching, we also found that Gujarat has a lower crime rate than most states in India. For this, Ms Momaya explained to us that Gujarat promotes a Kanya Prashod review, in which it is ensured that every child in the state of Gujarat is enrolled in a school. This review happens in outskirts and villages as well, ensuring that literacy amongst children is high, and might be a contributing factor to the low crime rate. The social structure of a city or state also contributes to the behaviour of its citizens and children. Upon her suggestion, we were also inspired to conduct an unfocused research about the environment of a child while growing up. In her opinion, the pampering relationship between parents and children in Gujarat might be the reason why more children do not turn to crime. One of the need of the system that she identified was that regular sensitising was required for the officials as constantly dealing with children of this nature may desensitise them to the gravity of the issue. POCSO; The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act defines sexual abuse and assault and awards a death penalty to any individual convicted of raping a child up to 12 years, introduced to us by Ms Momaya proved to be important for future references.

Mr. Indrajit & Ms. Hemalee Leuva Our visit to Gujarat State Child Protection Service and discussion therein focused majorly on the work happening on the ground level in observation homes and child care institutions.

They walked us through the work happening in reforms and rehabilitation currently, new things being introduced and challenges they faced during implementation. Along with the committee we were joined with a UNICEF consultant who worked closely with GSCPS. We got a better insight into work done till now in Gujarat in the area of Juvenile reformation, rehabilitation and reintegration and involvement of various stakeholders. Also the discussion mentioned involvement of NGOs for long term-short term projects, overseeing the homes, involvement of parents in the rehabilitation process,etc.

During the visit, the mention of a student at Mehsana came up as he was a talented artist and the Home and officials were trying to promote his talent. This provided us with a solid example of how redirection of energy and talents could help in the child flourishing even in the hardest conditions. We also learned of an example where a child was given community service as penance for his offence which was that he had hurt a senior citizen while driving rashly. His service to the community was to volunteer at an old age home, so that he would learn what effects his actions had on citizens of that age and those disabilities.

Sachi Maniar Sachi Maniar is a young filmmaker-turned-social entrepreneur and the founder of Ashiyana, an NGO that works out of Mumbai. Ashiyana provides socio emotional support to juvenile offenders at Dongri.

We were able to meet the founder of Ashiyana, Sachi Maniar, and get her opinions and ideas on the system. Sachi has been a very active member of the juvenile reforms landscape in recent years and is working extensively in Maharashtra, Gujarat and many other states.

The NGO, Ashiyana foundation helps to give the children emotional counselling, through up and coming methods such as restorative circles. According to her, most children there have come from conditions which have normalised many unnatural things for them. For instance, many of them have beaten up or have seen fights and murders on a daily basis, thus when confronted with a similar situation, they react in the only way they know, violently. It is, thus, very important to give them socio-emotional training, which they have not recieved and also give them positive memories to look back on, as these memories are what keeps us strong in times of adversity.

Ashiyana has conducted many such positive events, such as teacher’s day celebrations and performing art activities, which reinforce the children’s trust in society and make them believe that the authorities also trust them and expect good out of them. The aim is to prevent re-offending through positive reinforcement.

She further explained to us how Ashiyana works with the children in conflict with law by dividing them into groups based on risk rather than severity of crime. This means that if a child committed a petty crime, but it is due to a behavioural problem, and he shows no willingness to change his habits, he needs to be worked with more intensely rather than a child who has committed a heinous crime in a rash situation, and shows willingness to change. This is a radically different approach from what the administrative systems follow.

In the restorative circles, the children are taught how to recognise, label and express their feelings in a controlled way such that that they will not offend or hurt any other members of society. They have also been working to provide extended support to children who have left the

observation homes Taking the project further, we obtained permission to visit and interact with children in the Observation homes. For this purpose, we were able to visit 4 observation homes: Observation Home, Khanpur, Ahmedabad Place of Safety, Mehsana, Gujarat David Sassoon Industrial School, Matunga, Mumbai Umerkhadi Children’s Home, Dongri, Mumbai Here, for the first time, we were able to see the disparity in what was there on paper and what actually happens in reality. The information we gained from these visits helped us greatly in recognizing pain points and opportunities for interventions.

Umerkhadi children’s home, dongri During our visit to Mumbai, we were also able to visit the Children’s Home in Umerkhadi, Dongri. The home at Dongri is a children’s home and observation home; meaning that it houses both children in conflict with law and in need of care and protection. One of the biggest observation homes in Asia, the Umerkhadi home currently houses about 230 children in need of care and protection; 150 boys and 80 girls; and about 60 children in conflict in law; about 3-4 of which are girls.

The building complex that holds the Dongri Observation Home is a heritage building. The home is a converted British jail, the Dongri Jail. This building once housed the Indian freedom fighter Bal Gangadhar Tilak. For this very reason, the road where it is placed is also called Old Jail road. These semantics, however have hurt the reputation of the home considerably. The Observation home is still considered a jail by the locals staying around and thus the children coming out of there have a large taboo surrounding them. According to an official there, this may even defeat the reformation purpose of the Observation home, because the children go out into a very hostile environment.

The remand home at Dongri also houses three NGO offices. Prayers, Recource cell for Juvenile Justice and Ashiyana. This allows community volunteers and socially responsible individuals to access the children and offer help easily. In the boys’ section, they follow a set schedule throughout the day and go about their daily activities of praying, meditation, meals, vocational training and recreational time. When a child is admitted to the home, he spends 15-20 days in orientation, during which, the instructors try to gauge his interests and devise a vocational plan for him. The vocational activities available at Umerkhadi are; Tailoring, Mobile and Computer Repairing, Electrician training and Carpentery.

In the girls’ section, however, the juveniles and those in need of protection are kept together as there are only 3-4 juvenile delinquents. The girls go through a similar orientation and training procedure, but they have added options of Fashion Design and Beauty Parlor training as a part of vocational training. When we went, Navatarti celebrations were being held in full force, with all the girls participating in prayers, singing and garba. We also found out that Ganpati had been celebrated a few weeks back in the boys’ section.

david sassoon industrial school The David Sassoon Industrial School is an institution certified as a Special Children Home under section 9 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000. It comes under the management of The Children’s Aid Society, Mumbai. It is a formal education and a vocational training center with focus on character development of children there and reformation of juvenile delinquents. The sanctioned vacancy of the home is 400 boys ( 200 Children in Conflict with Law and 200 Children in Need of Care and Protection) between the age group of 12 to 18 years of age.

The campus is centrally located in Matunga, Mumbai and appears to be a normal school campus at the first glance once inside. The campus is equipped with a office building and a huge ground along with school building, dormitories for boys, medical room, workshop buildings, common hall and kitchen. The children staying inside are allowed to play on the ground every evening for few hours apart from inter and intra-school activities conducted. The buildings in the campus are heritage and are spacious enough to house the existing number of children inside. The workshops are slightly older structures but well-equipped with tools and materials required for the training required.

In the initial part of our visit we got to interact with Mr. Gaikwad, the Probation officer there who walked us through the working and operations of the place. He further introduced us to Mr Pawan, art teacher who had interesting insights into creative work happening there currently. According to him, the art activities being conducted inside the home provided good support for the children as it allowed them to express their feelings. By providing them with an outlet for their emotions, he observed that not only did it better the behaviour of the child, but also provided the teacher with insights on how to treat and reform the child so that he might develop to his full potential.

The students attend the school classes and workshop in batches in a day. The batch of students who attend classes in the morning go for vocational training in the afternoon session and similarly for the other batch classes are in the afternoon. Lunch breaks and evenings are common playtime for all. Apart from these David Sassoon Industrial School has vocational training in carpentry, welding and metal working, electrical wiring work, tailoring and organic farming.

Place of safety, Mehsana Mehsana Observation home for boys has both observation home and Place of safety. It was converted from a Children’s Home for children in need of care and protection (CNCP) 2 yrs back. It is a modern two storey infrastructure on the main road. It has about 50 children in conflict with law (CCL) within the age group of 16-21. The children are separated by age or affinity to others. There are multiple rooms on two floors and have the capacity to house 7-8 children in each room. The staff strength is 14 with 6 guards. The house has a library and a classroom. The children spend their time watching television (about 2 hrs everyday), Reading Gujarati story books in Library, painting and playing indoor games. A teacher (from Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan) comes everyday from 2 to 5 pm when the child can choose to go through guided studyand a councelor from 10 to 6 pm.

The Place of safety is for children convicted for serious and heinous crimes. The children for such crimes are supposed to be kept separate and given special attention for reform.

The counselor is on contract basis who comes regularly from 10am to 6pm. Any child who arrives at this home goes through multiple sessions with the counselor. How many session are to happen with the child is determined based on the severity of the crime and the willingness the child shows to improve. The first sitting is all about “who” the child is. The second sitting is about “why” is he here and his background. It focuses on thinking change and making the child realize of his acts. The child also goes in for a last sitting before leaving the home, to determine the extent of reformation that has occurred in the duration of stay.

wall paintings by children in mehsana place of safety

Observation home, khanpur Khanpur observation home is a transit point for the accused juvenile. The juvenile is inside the observation home while the inquiry and the Social Investigation Report (SIR) are in the process.

In this period of inquiry, the accused juvenile is kept inside the observation home.

The moment you step in its clearly a different environment from the outside world. The capacity of the Khanpur observation home is 18. Initially being a home to both for CNCP and CCL. Now the room for CNCP serves the purpose of mass gathering and an indoor space to play games.

The Khanpur observation home not only serves as a place to keep the children inside under inquiry but in the meantime, they also expose children to various vocational training. The juvenile delinquents are given exposure to an electrical course, cooking course, and tailoring.

The juveniles have a curriculum to train them in being a self-sustaining business, a juvenile who is interested in cooking is taught the very basic from the cooking to set up the stall and the basic mathematics required to effectively price and the food.

The observation home has its own set curriculum: The children wake up at 6:30 everyday and have tea or milk. They then go on to clean their rooms and clothes and get ready. At 10 am they have breakfast and then go on to attend school from 10:30 to 5:00 with a lunch break in between. After that the children get time off to play and then watch TV after dinner.

A counsellor from Odhav visits twice a week. One of the major concern for her was parenting and the other was the peer group. She also mentioned that as we move deep inside rural India the further we dig deep the bigger the problem is. Often the children are actually used as a source of income. At an early stage when these children are exposed to such a harsh environment they develop a very explosive and volatile self-identity. These children are most prone to committing a crime.

One of her feedback was that if we want to eradicate the juvenile delinquency we have to bring a change in this rural landscape we need to make the parents and the peers aware.

Also a very interesting initiative was taken by the authorities of the Khanpur observation home.

In order to impart a sense of achievement to children, they have opened their doors to orders.

They now are taking orders for items that can be made by the children inside the observation home as a part of their vocational training.

artworks by children in khanpur observation home

research through design

When we first visited the observation homes, we were inside only for the purpose of observation. Even so, we could feel the curious eyes of the children following us around, wondering what four unknown people were up to. Soon enough, we also learnt that asking questions, interviewing them and taking notes in front of them was getting us nowhere. The children were awkward and conscious of what they said and did. It was not getting us genuine data and also did not help in us forming a rapport with the children. We had to devise a way to interact with the children which they would enjoy, would not feel interviewed and give us genuine responses. To go forward with this we devised a set of games and activities, inspired from ice breakers and kindergarten activities.

The activities were as such in this particular order: Task 1 Arranging yourselves by Age: It was done to start a conversation among the children and for us understand the age group.

Task 2 Draw your partners portrait: To connect to other children and for us to gauge their drawing skills and interest.

Task 3 Draw your Hobby: To make them think about themselves and for us to grasp their personality and background.

Task 4 Group according to similar hobbies: To see internal dynamics and see what common pattern emerges.

Task 5 List 5 things in common within the group formed: To see how well they know each other and initiate consensus building.

Task 6 Two truth and a lie: To make them think consciously about themselves Task 7 New skill want to learn: To build aspiration and see possible intervention Task 8 New thing learned in observation home: To see inmate-staff relation and peer to peer relation.

Task 9 One thing liked about the place: Adjustment in place and outlook towards the system Task 10 What to do next: Interest level in activities.

The activities were conducted in three of the Observation Homes, Mehsana, Matunga and Dongri. Given are the insights from each of the observation homes.

Mehsana Children showed enthusiasm for all the activities Some children were hesitant to participate in each group Interest in sports, music and dance was seen commonly across groups.

The groups were amicable as a whole.

Willingness to learn new skills, beat boredom.

David Sassoon Children were slightly hesitant to draw but quickly caught with the fun nature of activities Quick, prompt response to tasks given.

Interest in sports like cricket,volleyball and dancing was common across the group.

More enthusiasm but out-spoken kids.

Once outside some children showed interest in pursuing sports as a career, learning.

Dongri In Dongri, we had to conduct separate sessions with the boys and girls as the sections were divided.

Girl’s Section Girls were more interested in drawing and readily started when we asked them to draw each other. They also drew more detailed and intricate sketches rich with patterns and information.

A few girls claimed to enjoy sports and physical activities, but a majority of girls enjoyed performing arts; like singing and dancing; and creative activities; such as border making, drawing or hairstyling.

The girls were open and eager to learn any activity that we could teach them and the activity that got most enthusiasm from almost all the girls was jewellery making and zari making.

Boy’s Section The boys had a herd mentality, they often ended up copying the given tasks.

There was evident groupism, there were juveniles who were completely dominating kids who were from other parts of the society.

The language barrier was exploited by the students and made fun of each other.

The juveniles were keen on learning “cool” things, like bike riding and tattoo artist.

But the boys were enthusiastic about interacting and participating in the workshop.

personas

Dhaval 14 years old, from Vasna Crime: Stole an iPhone on a public bus Occupation: Sells fruits in the local market with his family Hobbies: Cricket, spending time with friends Aspiration: Aims to own his own grocery shop.

Risk factor: Low (Wants to improve)

Jaimin 16 years old, from Thaltej Crime: Caught rash driving underage under the influence of liquor Occupation: Student, 11th Commerce Hobbies: Driving, playing video games Aspiration: No aims or aspiration about future Risk factor: High (Addiction)

Praful 17 years old, from Thaltej Crime: Murder and stalking an uninterested girl Occupation: No occupation Hobbies: Body building, riding a motorcycle Aspiration: Labour work with father Risk factor: High (grew up watching violence in his house, (anger issues)

All the images and personas provided are for representational purposes only. Any resemblance in looks or characteristics in not intended and is purely coincidental. These personas are the cumulative outcome of various case studies.

age-socio-economic study From our study, we realized that a lot of parameters lead to a child committing a crime, in order to understand the influence of these parameters .

We went ahead to plot a timeline of a child as he progresses and at every stage how a child changes according to the various influences he has. What exactly is the difference in a child’s decision when he belongs to a certain stratum of the society, what are the possible points at which due to a bad influence a child takes on the path of crime? How parents belonging to different economic status deal and groom a child.

This whole matrix also made us look at parent and child relationship as a potential opportunity for early prevention of the child committing any crime. The number of hours parents spend with their children is inversely proportional to the child committing a crime.

The whole idea was to find various opportunities in this matrix to isolate the possible early interventions that could be done to prevent crime happening by the children belonging to different age groups and economic status.

The next step was to conduct interviews with kids from different age groups and socioeconomic statuses.

Directly asking questions about their parenting was not giving us the valuable insights hence we had to change the way we conduct our research. We selected the idea of sharing stories of childhood. We developed certain triggers and the rest the kids took it forward. From our interviews, we could figure out a few things.

The questions were as such: Name and about their family and home.

Strictness of their family and parents The most stupid or rash thing that they have done What kind of school they went through and how strict it was About their friend circle and peers Things hidden from their parents Victim of crime and kind of punishment to be awarded to the offender Threshold of perception of crime

insights from the study The answers we got from the discussions led us to these inferences.

Types of punishments: Reward-based Scolding Beating Silent treatment Stripping the privileges There were certain key takeaways from the following interviews: Living in a closed community helps a child in growing up with a better understanding of what to do and what not to do Peer influence – one of the major triggers for any child to fall into the vicious circle of substance, vandalism etc.

This is the age when a lot of changes occur in the body leading to a lot of body shaming which intern leads to depression.

A pattern was observed bullied children in childhood often turn out to be bullies in their youth.

Influence of the content children watch. The definition of cool often leads to the child looking up to the antagonists and being like that. Often that becomes the selfidentity of the child.

Kids with single parents have a very different approach towards life, they often become mature faster. Especially seen in the case of our subject- the child was much more sensitive towards emotions, feelings, and was reluctant to get into substance abuse even though his peer group was doing it. It seems being raised by a single mother imparted resilience in the child.

The 9-12 grade is the age of thrill, out of curiosity or just thrill children often try out a lot of things and also end up going against law knowingly.

A lot of the children believe in an eye for an eye.

5th grade or below kids are often found to be aggressive towards parents if the demand is not fulfilled they show tantrums if not taken seriously these characteristics in the coming years might lead to becoming a violent kid.

Children of working parents are often found doing a lot of activities which are unknown to parents and also bring them to the risk zone. The amount of time a parent spent with the child is very essential to how the child will develop his philosophy of life.

Parents from different economic status often are strict about different parameters in the child’s life. it is observed that apart from education, the parents in the high economic status are more health conscious and open to exploration, whereas we down health goes out of the picture.

Children from different socio economic backgrounds and even different cities have different perceptions of what crime is and how it must be punished.

At the end of each interview, we started asking how these young children will raise their children and suggestions not only gave insights in what was missing from their childhood but also what is their take on ideal parenting: Bad actions should be punished good actions should be rewarded Understanding and changing according to the generation gap Hitting is not the best idea, the child will be rebellious, an alternative approach should be taken for an explanation.

As a parent, we should be free to talk to on any subject be it relationship alcohol or sex etc No restrictions no temptations, they can try everything in limits then let them decide their limits Give space but also give attention, a child might not be able to express so take time to understand understanding I maturity I independance I monetary responsibility I swearing I hiding I gender identification I generation gap (parents)

age 16-19

jealousy I physical attraction I violence I rebel I impulsive action I insecurity I thrill of doing wrong I privacy I bullying I introduction to drugs

age 12-16

material aspirations I appearance consciousness I grudges I opposite sex introduction I insecurity I popularity I exposure to the outside

age 5-12

power dynamics I best learning period I dependance on parents I developing habits I sibling rivalry I learning to act/ fake I learning communication

age 0-5

parenting Raising a child is perhaps one of the most important a difficult thing that the human race attempts to do. The responsibility of another human being, for its good health, mental condition and behaviour. Unlike other animals, human babies are much more dependant on their parents.

A lion cub will begin to walk within the week whereas a baby giraffe can start running anywhere between an hour or two. A human baby, however begins to walk around 7 months.

A speculated answer for this is that humans have the largest head to body ratio and the largest brain compared to body size seen in any animal. Added to this, 90% of the brain develops from birth to age 5. This means that despite comprising only 2 percent of the body’s weight, the brain takes up more than 20 percent of daily energy intake. This dependency on parents and growth of mental strength during the formative years means that the quality of a child’s experiences in the first few years of life – positive or negative – helps shape how their brain develops. Thus the parents play an extremely important role in terms of the development of the child.

There are three distinct styles of parenting, as defined by Diana Baumrind: The permissive parent attempts to behave in a nonpunitive, acceptant and affirmative manner towards the child’s impulses, desires, and actions. She [the parent] consults with him [the child] about policy decisions and gives explanations for family rules. She makes few demands for household responsibility and orderly behavior. She presents herself to the child as a resource for him to use as he wishes, not as an ideal for him to emulate, nor as an active agent responsible for shaping or altering his ongoing or future behavior. She allows the child to regulate his own activities as much as possible, avoids the exercise of control, and does not encourage him to obey externally defined standards. She attempts to use reason and manipulation, but not overt power to accomplish her ends (p. 889).

The authoritarian parent attempts to shape, control, and evaluate the behavior and attitudes of the child in accordance with a set standard of conduct, usually an absolute standard, theologically motivated and formulated by a higher authority. She [the parent] values obedience as a virtue and favors punitive, forceful measures to curb self-will at points where the child’s actions or beliefs conflict with what she thinks is right conduct. She believes in keeping

the child in his place, , in restricting his autonomy, and in assigning household responsibilities in order to inculcate respect for work. She regards the preservation of order and traditional structure as a highly valued end in itself. She does not encourage verbal give and take, believing that the child should accept her word for what is right (p. 890).

The authoritative parent attempts to direct the child’s activities but in a rational, issue oriented manner. She [the parent] encourages verbal give and take, shares with the child the reasoning behind her policy, and solicits his objections when he refuses to conform. Both autonomous self-will and disciplined conformity are valued. [She values both expressive and instrumental attributes, both autonomous self-will and disciplined conformity] ... Therefore she exerts firm control at points of parent-child divergence, but does not hem the child in with restrictions. She enforces her own perspective as an adult, but recognizes the child’s individual interests and special ways. The authoritative parent affirms the child’s present qualities, but also sets standards for future conduct. She uses reason, power, and shaping by regime and reinforcement to achieve her objectives, and does not base her decisions on group consensus or the individual child’s desires. [... but also does not regard herself as infallible, or divinely inspired.] (p. 891) According to her, the way that these four styles affect the child is as such:

Authoritative Lively and happy disposition Self-confident about ability to master tasks.

Well developed emotion regulation Developed social skills Less rigid about gender-typed traits

Authoritarian Anxious, withdrawn, and unhappy disposition Poor reactions to frustration Do well in school Not likely to engage in antisocial activities

Permissive Poor emotion regulation (under regulated) Rebellious and defiant when desires are challenged.

Low persistence to challenging tasks Antisocial behaviors

Thus according to Diana Baumrind, the Authoritative style of parenting is the best method of raising a child. This however may not always prove correct because many other factors may affect the behaviour of a child.

education In todays dog eat dog world, having a professional degree is almost everything. One must at all costs ‘make it in life’ and one of the first steps to that is to have a ‘successful’ education. The minute a child turns five years of age, parents trip over their own two feet to get him enrolled into ‘the best preschool’. Even so, 74.4% of India is still illiterate. Going or not going to school, which school you go to affects greatly not only your future prospects but also very often your personality as well.

After joining a school, a child spends almost 5-6 of his waking hours there. In addition to that, people have now started sending first and second standard students, even toddlers to tuition classes. With a majority of time being spent in educational institutions, children learn most of their mannerisms from their teachers, schoolmates and seniors at school. Even not going to school affects the child’s mentality; dealing with stigma, living hand to mouth, living in a hostile environment.

School also provides an inlet for many new experiences, not all enjoyable; bullying, peer pressure and insecurities are just a few of them. This is the first time that any of the children have been in contact with the outside world for so long and they haven’t been prepared for this kind of environment. Every child tends to act it out differently, and what you get is a group of children each influencing each other in ways that they could never have imagined.

Strict schools may sometimes help shape the child into a disciplined well-achieving individual, but sometimes may also result in resentful, rebellious bullies. Furthermore, Ken Robinson in his Ted talk, explained very eloquently how he believed that schools kill creativity. A child, born with great talents and potentials is slowly but surely pruned ruthlessly, until what remains is a lifeless formless husk of a tree to have it ‘fit in’ with society. According to him ‘Nobody has a clue, despite all the expertise that’s been on parade for the past four days, what the world will look like in five years’ time. And yet we’re meant to be educating them for it. So the unpredictability, I think, is extraordinary… … if you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original -- if you’re not prepared to be wrong. And by the time they get to be adults, most kids have lost that capacity. They have become frightened of being wrong. And we run our companies like this. We stigmatize mistakes. And we’re now running national education systems where mistakes are the worst thing you can make. And the result is that we

systems where mistakes are the worst thing you can make. And the result is that we are educating people out of their creative capacities.’

Most school syllabi today focus to create individuals that will pass the entrance test, teaching them absolutely nothing of social and emotional skills. This can be seen, not only inside but also outside India. But does this really affect the number of juvenile offenders? Sure, the education system is flawed, but does that contribute to the legal system.

What we have found from our unfocused research is that there is no specific strata of society or economy that create criminals, it is only the kind of crimes and the ability to pay bails that differ.

And for the most part of society, that accessibility and awareness comes through their school.

peers Friends can be the best support through the toughest times. But sometimes, friends can make you do the strangest things. Subconsciously or on purpose, peers affect our decisions.

Some children give in to peer pressure because they want to be liked, to fit in, or because they worry that other children might make fun of them if they don’t go along with the group.

Others go along because they are curious to try something new that others are doing. The idea that “everyone’s doing it” can influence some children to leave their better judgment, or their common sense, behind.

Peer pressure can influence: The way you dress or wear your hair The activities you get involved in The music you listen to Your decisions about using drugs and alcohol Who you date Who you’re friends with.

Many children are forced into doing things that they don’t want to get into, like dieting, bullying, drugs, alcohol and sex. It is difficult for children in these situations to get out of them, because to confide in an adult almost feels like betraying your friends. It is important that children find a responsible friend or sibling that they can relate to and also confide in.

insights AND pain points inside observation homes Lack of schedule for the children leads to unwanted behaviour due to boredom and no channeling of energy.

No focus on emerging reform techniques due to lack of licensed officials.

Hostility amongst the inmates, younger less risk prone children get influenced by older high risk prone ones.

Lack of involvement of parents and peers in the reformation and incarceration process Need for better infrastructure for education, vocational training and physical fitness.

There is a need for positive reinforcement measures to reform these children.

outside observation homes There are fewer female juvenile delinquents than male in India. This is because of the conservative upbringing girls go through (age-socio-economic study) and lower report rate.

The police have the power to let juveniles go with just a warning, but there is no record of said juvenile or any reformation in his acts.

Constantly dealing with juvenile criminals desensitizes the officials to the gravity and fragility of the situation.

Lack of people donating to the system, due to the taboo and stigma surrounding juvenile criminals.

Officials who deal with the children on a daily basis do not have a large say in the making of policies. Officials who make policies regarding juvenile justice are not directly involved with the juveniles on a daily basis.

Education, peer pressure, lack of family planning and ill-parenting lead to a rise in number of children at risk of falling under the purview of this system.

Majority of acts of crime committed by the children are on impulse, spur of the moment reactions or because of desperation.

There is no legal education imparted to children in the country. As a result, there is no clear understanding of law and their own rights and consequence to actions.

Lack of expression of self and their emotions is seen commonly in the teenage group.

Phase iv: benchmarks

manav sadhana Manav Sadhana is a NGO based out of Gandhi Ashram, Ahmedabad dedicated to the upliftment of marginalized communities through love. Manav Sadhna is engaged in constructive humanitarian projects that cut across barriers of class and religion while addressing issues faced by socio-economically neglected segments of society. In executing this mission, Manav Sadhna is guided by Mahatma Gandhi’s unshakable beliefs in love, peace, truth, non-violence and compassion. They have community centres in various places, slums in the city. The community centres are a place for learning, exploration , skill development for people of the community. The community centres in these slums provide a different, positive atmosphere to the children there to come and explore and learn. The Working parents in the community can leave their kids here while they go for work without worrying about the kind of influence they could have. The children are provided with education, food and positive upbringing through the day.

One of the Schemes which Manav Sadhana is implementing currently is Earn by Learn in which children can visit the centres after school hours and work on activities like painting diyas, making cards and envelopes, art pieces,etc and earn for the hours they contribute.The children coming here get a chance to develop skills they like and stay and learn in a positive environment and earn something out of it. The children are encouraged to constructively use their time. Apart from this there are community centres like Ramapir no Tekro Community Centre and Manav gulzar. We got an opportunity to visit Manav Gulzar during the duration of our Project. Manav Gulzar has an interesting background . The centre is located in a place where two communities reside primarily, Hindu and Muslim. As you enter the centre you see a mosque and mandir neighbouring to each other which depicts a beautiful amalgamation of the community it stands in. The centre runs school for kids, from KG to 10th grade. The place is constructed in such a way that it gives essence of the community but feels like a different place in itself and makes the children want to come back. There is a strong sense of belongingness and a constructive atmosphere.

Also there is a large peer and support group invested in similar activities in the various centres, the children get a sense of belongingness and build resilience. Not only the people managing the centres but the peer to peer connection and relationships make children come back and get more people. Manav Sadhana definitely build a case for positive peer influence and

a sense of belongingness. Also the participation of the community as a whole in different initiatives and brings a sense of brotherhood and responsibility amongst the larger community.

The centres act as a catalyst for bringing people together and creating a positive hopeful environment in the community. Creating a sense of community and belongingness is very essential for a child while growing up to prevent them from falling into a wrong spiral and Manav Sadhana , identifying the need there is working as facilitator in the area.

The photos on the following page are those of Manav gulzar, students working there and the store at Manav Sadhana. The store features paper and cloth products made by the students.

Each product has the name of the student who made it on the back, and the buyer can check the child’s profile on the site and choose to fund his or her education in whatever way that he can.

riverside school The Riverside school is an unconventional school in Ahmedabad, run by NID alumni Kiran Bir Sethi. With only 18 - 20 students to one class, the Riverside School ensures that each child gets personal attention. Beyond that, the Riverside school also has a method of teaching which allows the children to grow into their own ideals, and think for themselves. The teachers are more like guides, who make them aware of the world, and then let them make their own opinions. The children are taught to make their own opinions, but also to speak with respect and consideration.

Over the last 17 years, Riverside has designed, implemented and shared a unique user centered curriculum that is providing schools with an alternative model which focuses on quality of learning AND student well being. The practices have been recognized worldwide and the school has regularly been honored for its academic achievement as well as its unique philosophy of ‘Doing Good AND Doing Well’. Riverside School’s achievement stands as a testimonial of a true 21st century model with its students consistently outperforming the top 10 schools in India. Riverside has worked with schools to adapt this model to different economic and cultural contexts making it possible for children all around the world to experience this user centered method.

The Riverside approach is: TO COMMUNICATE a compelling idea of children and childhood, their potentials and competencies TO PROMOTE and practice empathy in education, with particular emphasis to cultivate children’s creative confidence through promoting creative agency TO ADVANCE the professionalism and culture of teachers, promoting a greater awareness of the value of collegial work and of meaningful relationships with the children and their families TO HIGHLIGHT the value of research, observation, interpretation, and documentation of children’s knowledge-building and thinking processes TO SHARE best practices through educational dialogues, conferences, professional development courses on the issues of education and the culture of childhood

feel

imagine

share

do

The 4 steps to accomplish any DFC goal

One great opportunity that the four of us got, thanks to our mentor Praveen Nahar, was to be a part of the Jury for Design for Change, a design thinking initiative which started in India, but has now spread to over 60 countries! DFC provides a platform for school children to tell their stories of how the changed a problem that they or their community was facing. Every year, once stories from all over the world have been submitted, a jury team gathers to evaluate the stories and chooses 20 of the best stories, the participants of which are part of an elaborate ceremony.

The format that DFC follows is Feel, Imagine, Do, Share; wherein, the children are encouraged to Feel and identify a problem that they face in their daily life, Imagine different ways to solve that problem, Do and implement one or many of your solutions, Share your story with as many people as you can and change their lives as well. It is a beautiful simplified approach to what we consider to be complex design thinking.

Each Jury had 3 designers, 1 teacher from the Riverside School and 1 student from 7th grade.

This resulted in a very interesting scenario, where the adults were very open to suggestions from children and took them seriously‌ what a surprise! The discussions were extremely eye opening because they were mostly conducted by the students.

The kind of projects that came up from the children were large scale interventions where the children tackled problems that affected their entire community, such as child marriage, wastage of water, fake news, and many more. The amount of confidence that this mindset gave them was something we learnt from here, as the children, every time they solved a part of the problem, would earn a sense of achievement that drove them to solve further problems.

restorative circle A Restorative Circle is a restorative practice whose development began with the work of Dominic Barter in Rio de Janeiro in the mid 1990s and continues with a growing community both in Brazil and internationally.

A Restorative Circle is a community process for supporting those in conflict. It brings together the three parties to a conflict – those who have acted, those directly impacted and the wider community – within an intentional systemic context, to dialogue as equals. Participants invite each other and attend voluntarily. The dialogue process used is shared openly with all participants, and guided by a community member. The process ends when actions have been found that bring mutual benefit. The practice of restorative circles has been encouraged actively in the American School system as a alternative for punitive discipline and the Juvenile System. The idea of a restorative circle is to open dialogue, go into the root of the problem and not just look at the action of the child.

The Restorative circles practised here in the Observation Home opens discussion among the kids. A lot of times, due to the complicated and varied social structure of our society, a lot of children who are inside the Observation Homes have been normalised to things, actions and thinking which isn’t considered okay by the larger society. There is a difference in understanding of right and wrong. The Restorative Circle aims to open up this discussion and make them see things from different perspectives and bring to table the consequences and the picture. It aims to instill a sense of empathy, socio-emotional learning among the children and work on how to control, express emotions. One of the interesting things that Sachi is doing trying to change the narratives of experiences for the children. Through various activities conducted inside the homes she’s trying to leave the kids with a trail of trust and positive memories which they could carry with them ahead. A a positive or happy feeling to fall back on in times of difficulty gives you a sense of hope and determination to carry on. RCs aim to look at the children beyond their action, Don’t make crime the person.

The restorative circles and the takeaways from it stay with the children even when they go out of the observation homes. It makes sure that the very aim of the reformation of the child in happening on a individual level through peer learning and interaction on a positive note.

slum soccer Slum Soccer is an organisation which uses football - the beautiful game which is unique yet a perfect vehicle that transcends race, religion, language and gender to bring about a change in the lives of street dwellers. It was registered as a Non Governmental Public Charitable Trust Organization governed by the Public Trust Act of the state of Maharashtra in 2001 under a board of directors. The organization is subject to periodic financial audit by law. They function with the ultimate aim of reaching out to the Indian homeless using football as a tool for social improvement and empowerment. The project aims to better the conditions of the slums in India by promoting soccer training, creating coaches, livelihood training, health camps, W‘edu-kick’ and programs for young leaders.

An unconventional method of reforming slums, it proved how sports and physical fitness can transform a space. In 2015, 5,000 kids from slums all over India were participating in Slum Soccer and over 100 coaches. Their statistic states that 85% children showed an increased interest in physical fitness. It also reduced the number of children who got into trouble by 80%, showing that sports and positive channelling of energies can help curb unwanted activities in a neighbourhood.

Phase v: design interventions

res-Q a restorative game

Concept and need Restorative circles are an important part of reform practices Sachi uses in the observation home at Dongri. Having travelled the world to study restorative practices, she figured that India needs to start using these restorative practices. Once back in India, she did start conducting restorative practices, and within the year, they were able to see changes. The children showed a greater interest in participating in the circles, and the quieter children started to open up.

The only problem was that there was only one Sachi. The Dongri home benefitted greatly from restorative circles, but it wasn’t able to reach the other homes in India.

One of the main factors of a circle is that there be a facilitator to work the circle. The facilitator needs to be well versed in the method of conducting a restorative circle and also be able to handle any averse situations that may arise while the circle is in session. It certainly may be difficult to train people to conduct circles, to learn the kind of empathy required to handle troubled children and listen to their problem without judgement. What is much harder is to convince people to put in the time and effort required to conduct a restorative circle. Since the effects of a restorative circle are not immediately seen, officials do not see the benefits of the process immediately.

ResQ attempts to provide counsellors, unexperienced in the method of conducting a restorative circle, a way to conduct a restorative circle, and children to be able to sustain the practice on their own without the need of a facilitator. In short, we wanted to create a product that would facilitate restorative circles. The best way to do this, we thought would be a game.

research Restorative circles are an important part of reform practices Sachi uses in the observation home at Dongri. Having travelled the world to study restorative practices, she figured that India needs to start usin To decide what kind of game we wanted to create, we conducted a few initial workshops with the children at the Khanpur Observation Home.

DAY 1 To grasp the interest of the children, we took a few activities to the home to play with them.

These were not the same as the previous activities done for information collection.

For the first activity, we gave the children colourless masks and asked them who was their favourite superhero. The answers varies from comic book characters to film stars to cartoon characters. Next we asked them to imagine that they themselves were superheroes and build a character for themselves. It was difficult at first, because the children all followed a herd mentality, citing only slight variations to what the child before them had said. Slowly, with examples on our part, we were able to get them to open up and think about what they really wanted to represent. Some said that they would help the poor and needy as super heroes, whereas others said that they would beat up the bad guys. One child went on to say that he would make sure that every body would keep the city clean if he was a super hero. We then asked them to take the blank mask cut out and design a mask that would depict the best qualities of their superhero and give him some character. Some children even got creative with the shape of the mask, cutting it out and filling in their favourite colours.

After this first exercise, we decided to give them a few brain teasers. Line drawings of different scenes were given to them and what they had to do was to identify fundamental mistakes that the artist had made while making the drawing. For example, a girl in one of the pictures was wearing two different shoes, and in another one, brooms and books were kept in the refrigerator. To test the waters of internal relations, we decided to make it a competition.

Children were divided into groups of 4 and asked to find all the mistakes before the other groups. The incentive of winning certainly speeded things up, as even quiet ones started to contribute to the discussion and identifying mistakes. But in the pressure to do things fast, they weren’t quite accurate in pointing out errors. Many children just pointed out random objects, trying to pass them off as errors, just to finish before other groups. We realised that if we

wanted to make a competitive game, we had to make sure that we ensured just the right amount of competition and support to others.

After that, we asked them to revisit their earlier roles as super heroes, and just like they had done with the pictures, try to find faults with their surroundings or society that bothered them. Then we asked them to imagine what they would do as a super hero to curb that thing from happening. The children identified truly large scale problems, like pollution, rash driving, substance abuse and criminal offences. To facilitate this process, we took help of the DFC method of ‘feel, imagine, share, do’. The children understood the process correctly and went on to follow it, with the guidance of their guards and teachers. This is a testament to DFC’s method which works well in different contexts as well as socio economic conditions.

Inferences The children were capable of maturely handling and discussing wicked problems, something we were doubtful about.

The involvement of the guards helped them stay on course for the activities that required maturity.

DAY 2 The next day, we were lucky enough to be joined by Lorraine and Adam, who were in India for a symposium. Lorraine Gamman and Adam Thorpe are professors of Socially Responsible Design at Central St Martens, London. They work extensively with prisons and prisoners in London, and have also conducted the Prison Project in the Sabarmati Jail of Ahmedabad. Their interventions target the well being of the prisoners while incarcerated and also designing out crime from society. They brought with them from London, a board game developed by four of their students, aimed at improving the relationship between incarcerated parents and their children.

Although the game was designed keeping in mind a completely different target audience, Lorraine encouraged us to try playing it with the children inside the home to see if it would give us any insights.

The game itself has a mechanism similar to that of Monopoly, participants roll the die and land on a room in the prison, and can then choose to buy that room. If the room has already been bought, they must pay the owner rent. We were slightly doubtful of how the children would play the monetary part of the game as 14 out of 20 children there had had no formal education and struggled with even writing their own name. The children however surprised us by managing their money and funds very well. They were able to bargain and judge wisely howto spend their remaining money.

Insights Children enjoyed the tangibility of coins and money in the game.

The incentive to earn money made them compete the tasks in the chance cards, cards with no remuneration were skipped.

Competitive tasks in the chance cards were avoided in the restorative practices. Once back in India, she started conducting restorative practices, and within the year, they were able to see changes. The children showed a greater interest in participating in the circles, and the quieter children started to open up. The only problem was that there was only one Sachi. The Dongri home benefited greatly from restorative circles, but it wasn’t able to reach the other homes in India.

One of the main factors of a circle is that there be a facilitator to work the circle. The facilitator needs to be well versed in the method of conducting a restorative circle and also be able to handle any averse situations that may arise while the circle is in session. It certainly may be difficult to train people to conduct circles, to learn the kind of empathy required to handle troubled children and listen to their problem without judgement. What is much harder is to convince people to put in the time and effort required to conduct a restorative circle. Since the effects of a restorative circle are not immediately seen, officials do not see the benefits of the process immediately.

ResQ attempts to provide counsellors, unexperienced in the method of conducting a restorative circle, a way to conduct a restorative circle, and children to be able to sustain the practice on their own without the need of a facilitator. In short, we wanted to create a product that would facilitate restorative circles. The best way to do this, we thought would be a game.

prototype #1 The initial prototype of the game was made keeping the mechanism of UNO in mind. We stuck on questions and task post-its on a deck of Uno cards, and explained to the children how to play UNO, but with a twist. If the person playing the card had something written on his card, then he had to answer the question on it, or complete the task written on it. If he failed to do so, he would have to pick up a card from the pile in the centre. The objective of the game was to lose all your cards. The questions and tasks were divided according to colour, blue cards had questions about the world, yellow cards had introspective questions about themselves, red cards had fun games and activities and green cards had questions about their society and family. Once the game started, it was difficult for the children to pick up on the mechanism of number on number cards or colour on colour cards, as some of them were not educated.

They got the hang of it after one trial game, where they were able to visually relate the shape of numbers. Their peers, players of the game also helped out struggling players. Three games in total were played, and by the beginning of the second round, two guards also expressed their willingness to play with the children. This seemed to be a very entertaining prospect to the children. Once the children got into the mechanism the game, they started participating in the questions and activities more freely, but every once in a while, a child would refuse to complete the instruction on the card.

Insights No linearity of narrative in the play, activities would come right after important reflective questions, breaking the flow Activities that involved other participants were better received The mechanism and narrative was not flowing well together There was no positive incentive to complete the task, only the mild threat of having to pick up a card Need for positive incentive Need for a narrative based structure rather than mechanism based structure Involvement of guards proved to be beneficial as they were seen as equal players The guards also helped the children to respect each other and the game, while being part of the game Taboo surrounding card games as gambling games No element of surprise in what task they had to do since they had time to prepare

prototype #2 In the next version of the game, we tried to address all the problems faced in the earlier card game. We changed the card mechanism to a board game. To do this, we studied some narrative based games like Monopoly and Apples to Apples. In the new version, the board would hold the counters of the players and dictate what card the child got. It also helped maintain the narrative from activities to reflection and not vice versa. We also decided that as in a detention restorative circle, each game would be based on a certain topic and the aim of the game would be to discuss the topic, the severity of the issue and methods to resolve it.

The resulting game was such that the first half of the circle ring had mostly activity card colours in the tiles, the middle part had question card colours and the last part had resolution card colours. The child had to pick up the colour of card of the colour of the tile on which he had landed. He then had to complete the task. On completion, he would get a green token worth 2 points. If he offered to do the task on somebody else’s card or with somebody else, he would get a green participation token of 1 point. If he refused to do the task or caused mischief in the game, he would get a red token that would denote -1 point. At the end the child with the most amount of points would win.

Insights Participation coins ensured attention and participation from other interested players There was confusion in when to participate on another’s card and when to not The red counters were acting as discouragement and a sort of mild taboo the game went on for too long, thus we needed to either reduce the number of players or the number of tiles In the next version of the game, we introduced a talking stick, anybody who held the stick could participate and if nobody was holding the stick, then the game would continue. We also removed the red token and made a rule that anybody who did not complete the task would lose his coins.

RES Q

indian penal comics an illustrated IPC comic

need and concept One of the major findings that came out of our research is the lack of awareness and understanding of law among the children and the society as a whole. The children across various socio-economic groups do not have an understanding of the consequences their actions could lead to. In our society, Law is largely treated as a foreign entity that we usually should not come in direct contact with. There is no prevalence of legal education in schools even though all the citizens should be well aware of it. A lot of times since effects of the action are not known, they think they can get away with the act of crime or there is complete ignorance of the wrongness of the actions. Also during our primary research we came across children who didn’t know what their rights were and what has to be done once they are caught.

The ignorance about these things could be harming us a society more than we know.

Perpetrators could be discouraged from the act of crime if they are made aware of the consequences of their actions in that moment and large scale impact it could have on many lives.

So one of our interventions was about addressing this issue and imparting basic legal education to the children across different socio-economic groups. One of the major reasons Law of the land are not known by its people is because of accessibility. The language these legal documents is very superior and not in the purview of common man/ our daily life. It is difficult to understand. The kind of language used in IPC may not be understood by a child but it is essential that they start building a basic understanding of good and bad actions, right and wrong from a young age. It is essential that the members of society are well aware of the code they live by. For this purpose we decided to introduce a child – friendly / illustrated version of the Indian Penal Code.

research The Indian Penal Code (IPC) is the main criminal code of India. It is a comprehensive code intended to cover all substantive aspects of criminal law. The IPC includes a comprehensive list of actions that could be considered as criminal by law and also the punishment for the same.

Through illustrated IPC we want to open the topic of law to children but in a way where it could be easy and effective for them to imbibe. Children like stories, adventures, comics,etc and we aim to use these as tools to bring the legal code to them. The idea here is to remove the neglect of the law which is commonly seen in our society and open the system to them. Also one aspect we would like to address through this is the Humanization of the elements of the legal system and instead of portraying them as ever intimidating figures we aim to bring out the good work they do.

execution and way forward To start out with illustrated IPC went to go back to our research. Since illustrating the entire IPC wasn’t a possibility, we worked on a particular code and scenarios relating to it. According to the statistics the maximum number of juvenile delinquents were detained for theft so we decided to go ahead with that. Also theft is something which is common in the age group across various scales for material aspirations, shoplifting, etc. First we went through IPC 378 which defines various scenarios which could be accounted as theft and constructed stories around them.

These stories were constructed keeping in mind the age group of 9-14 year olds. We specifically aimed at this age group as it would be the right age to introduce certain concepts without affecting them in a negative way and children usually develop habit of reading here. Also we wanted the children to have certain clarity before they reach the volatile age/teenage, etc. Once the stories were in place, we worked on the visual style for the comic. Since the flow of the story and takeaways from it were to be highlighted, we decided to keep the visual style simple and focus on emotions and expressions. To keep the different IPCs connected and establish episodes in the storyline we have elements of the system like Policeman and the Judge as central characters who will be present throughout the series.

For the further scope of the project we aim to work on the other IPCs and establish a series of comics. The propagation will be started by reaching out to children in schools and community centres. Depending on the reception these could be integrated in the commercial products for the children to reach possible wider audience.

final photos

briefs guidelines for stakeholders

execution After our research phase, we tried to decide what to work on for the rest of the project. Since we had already identified pinpoints, some solutions came to us immediately, but we came to a realisation that these problems are not something that really require designer interventions.

What it really required was for these issues to come into the light, so that the responsible stakeholders would know that assistance was required and how to go about it. So, we decided to identify these various problems, solutions to them, who could help alleviate some of it and how could it be solved. In the process we became nitpickers, finding problems where even the people in the system couldn’t find any. Once we had all our problems noted down, we proceeded to think of solutions for all those problems. The solutions were of 5 kinds; experience, infrastructure, policy, product and services; and they affected at four different phases of the system; prevention, reformation, reintegration and speculative.

Experience: Is a product or environment based intervention that aims to provide an alternate experience to a stakeholder.

Infrastructure: Provision or architecture based interventions.

Policy: Interventions that require the support of the government or some other administrative body to conduct large scale change.

Product: A physical, tangible solution to the problem.

Service: An intangible, customer service based model of company of system.

Prevention: Ensuring that juvenile crime doesn’t happen in the first place.

Reformation: Changing the mindset of the offender once inside the system to a better outlook towards society.

Reintegration: Ensuring the well-being of the offender once out of the system and into society.

Speculative: Future policies or products that may not be currently feasible, but based on how the system is currently working and how it will change in the future.

Providing legal education in school Currently, in India, there is no legal education provided to any child anywhere, and in a court of law, one cannot say in their defence that they did not know the law. Children all over India do not even know their own rights and amenities provided to them. Thus it is very important that legal education be provided in schools or by the government.

Drug and Alcohol prevention During teenage, many children fall into the trap of substance abuse. Since children are influenced very easily in this age, there should be an experience provided to them, showing immediately what drugs can do to their body in the long term.

Co-teaching Sexual Education In a country where saying the word sex is a taboo, children grow up wondering what it exactly is. This confusion and extreme curiosity gives rise to a kind of desperation that makes an individual go to any lengths to experience what he has only heard of. This can only be prevented by responsible sex education, and preferably given to boys and girls simultaneously, not hidden behind closed doors.

Emotional education Children who grow up in harsh conditions a desensitised to issues that are heinous for the rest of the world. A boy who has grown up seeing his mother get beaten by a drunken father might learn that abusing and raping a woman is his birthright. These children especially must be provided with social, emotional and legal training, along with well-settled children.

Child rearing classes Is raising a child intuitive? Even if it so, new and expecting parents should be provided with information about how to raise a child. Not just the physical matters of changing diapers and burping the child, but also how to emotionally and behaviourally stabilise the child.

Designing out crime Vandalism is one of the most widespread forms of revolt and offence. To tackle this, designers can be employed to make objects and surrounding vandal and crime proof.

Risk factor game For parents it is very hard to understand their child as the child grows older. This concept game aims to start conversations between parents and children, through which the parents can gauge the stability of the child by indirect means.

Creation of Community Spaces ‘A village raises a child’ this phrase can be well utilised if the community is close and helps everybody out. To do this, community centres can be established in slums and other settlements to promote the spirit of societal well-being.

Design a day Designing a day in the life of an inhabitant of the Observation home, to build down trauma and promote any positive talents and skills. Give them a say in what they can and want to do in the home; promote responsibility.

Introduction of therapy Clay, nature, art, music‌ all these forms of therapy are slowly but surely gaining foot in making people understand their importance. These methods will also be very helpful inside observation homes to ensure mindfulness of the participants.

VR Experience Providing a VR experience to other stakeholders and laypersons will promote them to empathise with the condition inside the home and find ways to help or volunteer. Conversely, an experience can be provided to the inhabitants to show them what their life could be if they take certain steps.

Peer learning The inhabitants teaching each other their forte of skills will promote respect and courtesy amongst the children, inside the home.

Introduction of role models Inspirational personalities in the fields of interest of the children can give talks or take workshops inside the house, providing the children with methods of success and an incentive to work harder.

Makers in Homes It is very important to keep your body fit, but it is also very important to exercise your brain. This can be done by introducing the children to maker skills, asking them to identify problems in their surroundings and make objects to solve them. This would also lead to setting up a creative hub inside the home.

Sensitising officers The officials responsible in the system should undergo sensitisation training every year, to help them conduct their job better. This could be done through the medium of a game or an app as well.

Meditation How can one make meditation, an activity that children look down upon, interesting for the children inside Observation homes?

Parental and peer involvement Involving parents and close peers in the reform processes will provide the child with support and incentive to undergo them. It will also ensure that the child returns to a supportive environment with people who understand what he has undergone and its importance.

Buddy System with schools Schools making it voluntary for the students to volunteer in Observation homes would provide the students a greater world view and also provide the children in the homes with companions and idols to learn from.

Competitive events healthy competition will promote respect and enthusiasm inside the home, but one must make sure that the competition does not turn bitter.

Catharsis for staff A event where the staff could relieve all their troubles during the day would help them to in turn perform their duties better, as they would not hold the bitterness of those events deep inside.

Art Exhibit Art is the best way to express. An art exhibit of the works of the juveniles would provide insight into their lives and characters and also help outsiders to empathise with them.

Career counselling The best way to reintegrate an juvenile into society is to provide him with a purpose and it is also important that it be to his interest. This, career counselling is extremely important for the reintegration of a juvenile.

Children teach parents Ask children how they should be raised. Provide this answer to parents and see how they take it. This might provide valuable insights into parenting.

Designing the perfect child Garba shastras, in India, provide information on how to treat yourself during pregnancy so that the child is born in a preferable way. Although a lot of it has not disintegrated into senselessness, a scientific study into what affects the child in pregnancy may help parents to better conduct themselves during pregnancy. Another speculative take is genetically engineering every child for a preferable outcome, thus reducing unwanted elements in society and less crime.

License to have children In the movie Parenthood, a character claims ‘they make you get a license to buy a dog, drive a car and even catch a fish. But they’ll let any one become a father’. Strikes a chord doesn’t it?

Perhaps people should be tested to make sure that they are capable of raising a child physically and emotionally. This would reduce many unwanted and badly raised children.

Crime Tax Again, a speculative outcome where the community pays a tax for every tax committed, because if crime is rampant, then it is in some way the fault of the community and society as a whole.

These briefs have been documented as cards to explain to the stakeholder exactly how to go about completing these briefs. They will act as a tool for Design Sprints to facilitate the flow of the conversation and allow stakeholders to understand what needs to be done, a checklist of sorts.

Phase vi: future scope

future scope A lot of new insights and pain-points came out of our research. Taking the pain points as our starting point we came up with numerous possible design interventions and opportunities that could address these pain points in the system. We used design research and creative thinking and brainstorming methods to identify the pain-points and come up interventions and opportunities. Due to academic duration and other administrative and infrastructural limitations we could not take a lot of interventions ahead. Also some of the opportunities that we identified and could help in long term to the kids were out of our scope of implementation as designers. Even though interventions in the system were identified by a group of designers after interacting with different stakeholders, the implementation of those needs collaboration among various stakeholders /elements and changes on different levels which could be brought about by the people of the system.

Therefore, we would like to present to the stakeholders of the system possible interventions that could be undertaken on preventive and reformative stages in the near future and possible far ahead plans which could be established. As designers, here we would be representing our take on the problem and possible design interventions and implementation that we thought would be apt/best for the problem area. We would like to urge the stakeholders concerned / stakeholders who can work on /implement these interventions to take them ahead.

Design Sprint Community Spaces Education _ Prevention in Schools End Goal Game Goal Creation Open House Workshop in Slums Financial Ecosystem

community spaces A tightly knit community can solve many problems before they even happen. It is also suggested that children who grow up in joint families or close communities are more stable in their behaviour. Thus, we think that the creation of a community space in slums, settlements and residential areas would help people to bond better and create communities resilient to crime.

Inspiration can be taken from Manav Sadhana, who by setting up community centres in slums have been able to monitor the activities in the surrounding areas and report any wrong happenings as well as create a stronger bond between the community and especially the children. There is always a safe space for people to come to in case of trouble and be sure to get assistance from the surrounding community.

Inclusions CSR activities should be promoted Creative workshops in Slums Community functions to celebrate diversity Earn and learn opportunities for young individuals to work with hiring professionals.

Elders of the community playing a greater role in the raising of the children collectively Spreading awareness about larger issues in the community Inclusion of design thinking and making workshops

design sprint The Juvenile Justice System is a large system which is spread across various stakeholders.

Also apart from the integral stakeholders of the JJ system some elements of the system are also related to /closely working with the other people/organizations who are a recurring part of the entire system. Since the system has an established hierarchy, many a times there is no proper/ restricted communication among the different elements. The grievances / problems of the people operation on ground /grass root level may not reach the people who make the law. The staffs who work with the children face concerns do not always reach the law making body. We feel like there is a lag of information here and things could be improved with better communication itself.

Our inspiration for design sprint comes from two different concepts we came across and practice – The Judicial Conferences that happen across states every year and Design Thinking workshops that are very common among the Design Community.

The Zonal Judicial Conferences held across states bring to light the achievements and hindrances faced in that particular year regarding Juvenile Justice. There is discussion among the people present about the common themes and grievances and possible resolution for it. Design Workshops are usually held with the user in the design process to collaborate with them and come up with best possible outcome for the user.

A gathering of all the stakeholders involved in the system in a common space to bring to the table issues faced and challenges at different stages. We wish to keep the stake holders anonymous of their positions for the sake of the meet. The stakeholders work with children at least for a week anytime before the meet and bring to table different perspectives. Through the Design Sprint we aim to bring to the table different perspectives of the problem and how can these issues be solved in cohesion. A consideration to the children’s Pov and staff who directly interact with them also should be given.

Various design tools and thinking cards could be used to facilitate the conversation. By the end of the sprint which may last 2-3 days we aim to have few common solutions which address the problem that time period. A facilitator or designer could be brought to the picture to conduct such a sprint but the participation of stakeholders is primary.

preventive education A school is where a child spends almost half of his waking day. Thus, there is tremendous potential to train and make a child aware about his surroundings.

Although this is the current aim of schools, we found that inclusion of these activities would help better rounded individuals: Students and teachers volunteering at observation homes will give them a much wider world view. The children will learn about another part of society that they rarely get to see and empathise with the lower strata. The children in the homes will get not only companionship, but also an ideal of what a child from better conditions than him is raised and expected to do.

All education should be gender inclusive. Many schools give basic sex education to boys and girls separately. Although this may be done to maintain discipline, it is important for the children to learn about the reproductive system of the opposite gender. If not, it leads to extreme curiosity and children try secondary means of information collections, giving rise to myths and misinformation. All children should be taught about all aspects of society together to ensure that they are also able to empathise with each others’ opinions.

There should be a focus on life skills, just as much as if not more that that on educational skills. Children should not leave the school simply able to pass another entrance test, but fully equipped to tackle societal structures and problems. Survival skills like cooking and cleaning, which have been forced into the dark also must be taught to all children.

Social work and volunteering should be a criteria measured to determine success, just like a sports or arts quota. Emotional and empathetic intelligence should be recognised and rewarded alongside other skills and talents.

Parents should be more active in the school life of the child. This can be done by allowing parents to volunteer to teach and be part of school events. Some amount of parent involvement should be mandatory.

Children should be educated about substance abuse and what effects it has on the body, do that they may never fall in those vices. Similarly, children should be taught about pollution, population, respect, trust and other soft skills.

Legal education should be provided in all schools, at least to give children a basic understanding about their rights and responsibilities. Children must also know who to contact for help in case of adverse situations and the officials responsible.

end-goal game The Idea of the End Goal Game is to start a conversation among the parents and the children.

This is more of a preventive measure addressing a stable support system for better upbringing of a child.

During our age socio economic study, we came across a very evident trend across the economic groups that the children start drifting away from their parents, teachers and elders around them in general as they start entering the teenage phase. The peer influence is high in this age period and there is an absence of higher stable figure who they could confide in. A lot of times parents are unaware of what their child is doing or what they could be growing up to be.

One of our proposals to address this scenario is The End Goal Game. In the End Goal Game, you are yourself as a character as you navigate through different situations in life. It could be a board game or card game or a combination of both. The questions and the games will be framed in such a way that they subtly reflect what choices would you regularly make in real life and make you realise as you go what consequences those choices could have on you. CAN PUT TRAFFIC SIGNAL EXAMPLE. We particularly want this Game to be in such a way that it could be played with family, friends and in schools. If a child is making a wrong choice in the game the parent / teacher can guide him/her why is it wrong and give alternatives on how to go ahead in a better way. It could be a conversation starter if either of the party wants to bring to table a sensitive topic.

This could be a design brief if any designer would like to take it ahead. NGOs could play a big part in propagation of it in different section of the society, schools, community places, etc.

This kind of a game could also be introduced inside observation homes as the children can self-reflect on where they took a misstep an still show them they are options to go ahead with and how could they do that. It could help parents, teachers and other stakeholders in understanding the children better and possibly work with them in a more meaningful way.

Future observation homes As a speculative exercise, we wondered how the world would work without any jails and observation homes. Simply removing the homes might not make any sense, but if another system is put in place, it may be beneficial to the society. Isolation and incarceration does affect the prisoners in averse ways. To counter this, the foreign system of giving community service for mild offense inspired us. By this method, the need for observation homes can be completely eradicated.

Phase #1 Goals are given to juvenile offenders who commit petty offences rather than just sending them off with a warning. A probation officer assigned to the juvenile ensures the completion of the goal. The goal must be in tandem with the background of the child, his skills, his mental and physical health and the crime that he has committed. For example, for a child having stolen an item, the goal would be to earn the amount of the item and see how hard it is to actually earn money through honest means. This will ensure some level of reform of the child, which doesn’t happen in the current system, because they are simply left with a warning.

Phase #2 Along with giving goals to petty offenders, they are also introduced into the Observation homes and Special homes for serious and heinous offenders. For example, if a child fractures a senior citizens hip while driving rashly, he must take care of the senior citizen till he recovers, under the observation of the probation officer. This will not change the current system too much, but will ensure that the child learns from the experience rather than simply putting him in isolation with the other children. It makes sure that even in the company of other offenders, the child will retain his individual goal and responsibility.

Phase #3 Phase 3 is a very idealistic hope, that there will come a day when there are no observation homes at all. Once an an offense is committed, there will be no isolating of the offender to get influenced by other offenders, but he will be given larger goals that he must complete under the supervision of a probation officer. The aim of the goals and the system should be to reform every offender that comes into the system. The design of this system, however, must be done with maximum caution, as it must strike the correct balance of incentive and deterrent.

open house During our visits to various observation Homes, we came across a very interesting scenario.

The children inside get to learn varies skills of their choice from woodworking, painting to something like mobile repair which is recent skill of coming times. The children are interested in learning these skills inside and they do but due to lack resources it becomes difficult for them to practice once the course is done or they get out. Also a few observation homes teach children how to make products which they can continue working on later. But a monetary crunch may prevent a large number of children from pursuing their skills once out. Skills taught to children will be useful if they are able to practice them in the long term.

Our intervention to address this issue is a Proposal for Open House. The idea of the open house is a certain section of the Observation Homes could be opened as a shop for the outsiders where the services provided are the skills learnt by the children inside. Things like mobile repair, paper bags, arts and crafts done by the children are services and products done by the children which can be made available to the common audience. The shop could be operated for few hours every day by the children and monitored the staff inside. Through this we aim to get monetary inflow for the Observation Homes in benefit of the children and also spread awareness in general public about the constructive work happening inside. This could play a major role in changing the general public’s perspective on what Observation Homes are and reformation of Juveniles.

Also the children contributing to the store could be awarded through a credit/point system in which a stipulated amount of points are given depending on what they do. Children the house usually are not motivated to finish the tasks inside as they do not always see where learning these things will get them to. One of the concepts was using a credit system to encourage good behavior and a spirit of learning inside.

This could be used as an incentive to keep them motivated to learn new things. Also with their credited points when they leave the place they can acquire necessary materials/tools for continuing the work outside. This project could be taken up by collaboration between multiple stakeholders on administrative level and people who work with the children on ground. Opening the house and getting the word out there could also bring in interesting CSR collaborations for skill development and learning.

creative workshops Slums are often simply looked down upon, instead of studied and improved. One way in which designers can directly intervene in this system is by conducting creative workshops with slum children, ensuring that they are exposed to opportunities that they wouldn’t usually get.

Inclusions Maker workshop: Children identify problems with their surrounding community, and learn how to make interventions that will solve them. This will teach them how to solve problems through honest and creative means rather than give in to material aspirations and steal or fight.

Children can have a workshop to beautify their home and the surrounding slum. They can paint on the walls, make ornaments or furniture and display in the surrounding areas.

This will help them have pride in the space where they stay and also aspire for better living conditions, which they can indicate through their ornaments.

Children should teach each other the skills that they are best at. Peer to peer learning develops a bond of respect and friendship, which will knit closer communities. The elders should also contribute to teaching their skills, professions and hobbies. While curbing unwanted activity, this will also foster respect for the elderly.

A club should be formed within the children, which will uphold the teachings and traditions. Older members should come back to visit and contribute with new learnings. This will be like an informal slum school, for the children and by the children.

conclusion & acknowledgements

When we started this project, neither of us was well acquainted with the system, or even knew anybody who was. Through this project, we have met many remarkable people, visited places we never thought we would ever visit and conducted workshops that, just a year back, we would never have even attempted.

This project has opened up a whole new field of design, forcing us to think out of the traditional product box and explore avenues which we thought designers would never be associated with.

While there have been some tangible outcomes from this systems oriented project, there is a much wider scope. We genuinely hope that this project is taken forward, with or without us, and systemic change occurs over the next few years in the Juvenile Justice system of India. Many interesting collaborations between stakeholders are possible, which will lead to larger scale changes.

Here we conclude this project with future scopes and possible interventions, hoping that more people become aware of this system and do what they can to volunteer, donate or conduct creative interventions.