THE disclosure of torture of 20 minor boys at Tongi Juvenile Development Centre also known as a ‘Correction Centre’ has shocked the nation. They have been sent there by families for rehabilitation towards an orderly life after exhibiting abnormal behaviour at the family level. But physical torture has made them rather more erratic to fail the very purpose of sending them to the correction center. The High Court has meanwhile directed the government to submit a thorough probe report as to why the inmates of the centre have severely injured themselves. Earlier on Thursday, a national daily published the shocking report stating the deadly protest of the inmates.
The Correction Centre officials however, claim that it is a concocted story. The incident took place due to the inebriated behaviour of one inmate and later 19 others joined him to “insult” the officials. They claimed that the minor inmates injured themselves by severely cutting their hands, foreheads, legs and other parts of their bodies with broken glasses. The inmates agreed that they had injured themselves but they said they did it to protest the fact that they were not getting food regularly and were also routinely physically tortured by the officials. In the observations, the High Court said that the tragic incident could take place due to the erratic behaviour and callousness of the officials who were duty bound to protect the rights of the children and bring them towards an orderly life. The bench also asked the government to explain in two weeks about its past inaction in stopping the mismanagement of the government-run correction centre.
The presence of injuries in different parts of one’s body by 20 minor inmates simultaneously looks anything but an act under the influence of narcotics. Contrary to it, the centre’s official’s story is that the inmate got drunk after taking cough syrup given by his brother upon his return from a court hearing. But it appears a bit unacceptable as well and the incident matches more closely with the precedents of identical desperate attempts of protests.
Shelter and food are the basic rights for any individual in the society and additionally, as such, the centre is supposed to be providing education and training facilities for its inmates as well. It is already regrettable that the “Correction centre” has an accommodation capacity for 200 minors while the current number of inmates runs over 323, who are allegedly fed low-quality food and live in a dirty environment. We wonder what kind of essential correction mechanism is being delivered in this centre under these circumstances.
Furthermore, reports have it that many children, released after their tenure at the centre, have become entangled in crimes again. It is not very difficult to understand that something is going wrong in the centre. We believe that if the centre does not fulfil its mandate it should be discontinued. If the centre is run to meet its original objectives stated at its birth in 1987 under the social welfare ministry to rehabilitate minor aberrants and re-integrate them in society, then these types of mismanagement and negligence should be severely dealt with.
