So, I open my Times of India tab which I regularly do, to briefly glance over the "top stories" of the day and keep myself updated, and the most horrendous news takes my attention.I read the date twice because I feel a sense of deja vu, like I have read this in yesterday's news too.No, its fresh. A juvenile rapist and murderer is released and has threatened again the sister of the victim, whom he had brutally raped and murdered. I guess murder is still a little glossy word. The "juvenile" raped the 6 year old victim repeatedly and then tore her body limb to limb and disposed it off in different public toilets. Questions like how could he? or why did he? is hardly what bothers me as I am overwhelmed by the number of incidents that have taken place over the past 5 years and how every time, these demons get better or worse at something you thought could not get more gruesome.
These grizzly affairs have stirred us to revisit the very humanity we have theoretically accepted our society has... by default. And the fact that the perpetrator is a juvenile has only increased our fears. So the question I would like to ask myself is, how juvenile is a juvenile?
The laws of our land govern that specific age limits are the perfect way to split up these adolescent citizens into being ready for voting(18), ready for drinking(21) and most definitely ready for marriage(21). And as ghastly as it may seem, the laws have unwittingly also provided a legal age for rape! Confused? Well, so was I when I saw repeated acquittals in various rape cases where juveniles in the bracket of 14 to 18 where given a "get out of jail free" card owing to a school leaving certificate. I would like to cite an example where a 14 year old boy was taken into a special reformatory home for a period of 6 months for raping a 4 month old infant girl. The disturbing fact is, today he is married and has his own family, but what happened to the child? Have we really become so blind? Has the average Indian really forgotten all about this crime? Was him being a minor at the time when the crime was committed, the only factor for going easy on him? So, if we use the same analogy with Kasab, and say that he was a minor at that time, will it clear him of all the charges?
We call them juvenile, and when I looked it up in the dictionary, it meant someone who is young and has not yet reached maturity. In legal tone, a person who is unaware of the crime and the consequences of the crime are called juveniles. So, are we to understand that in Delhi gang rape case, the juvenile, who according to the police charge sheet lead the group and did a monstrous damage to the victim by sticking a steel rod in her private parts be called unaware? Should we believe that the person who orchestrated the entire act that shamed the nation and the world be considered incapable of deciphering the consequences? I feel tired now, using the term juvenile as it only reminds me of a pretentious person trying to cover his bloodied tracks using the shrewd yet deceptive face of a child.
Human activists charge at the fact that our law should be reformatory and not driven by retribution. They say these "mislead souls" should be given proper counselling, and given a second chance at life. So does the current norm of having 6 months to 3 years of reformation really reform the criminal bent state of mind? I am perplexed at what could be the answer to such cases. Some suggest that we should hang them or at least give them life imprisonment to set an example and club them along with adult rapists and murderers. Some others say that we should reform the entire judicial system, change the reform homes to better suit such cases, and if possible, also allow them to integrate with the society again. Personally, I feel we should see the nature and intent of the act, the magnitude and intensity of each case and let our bright judges decide, not based on laws of numbers, but on the possibility that a crime is not always the result of a wayward child with psychological issues, sometimes it can also emanate from a stable mind with planned schemes and conscious ramifications.
