The New Nation - Internet Edition

UNB, Dhaka

Some 1,712 children were arrested and sent to jail in 2007 though the High Court ruled five years back that no children should be kept in jail.

Currently, some 380 children are languishing in 57 prisons across the country despite a High Court order to the government to transfer all accused juveniles to safe custody or Kishore Unnayan Kendra (KUK - juvenile development centre).

A High Court division bench comprising Justice Amirul Kabir Chowdhury and Justice Nijamul Haque Nasim issued a seven-point directive for the government on April 9, 2003 while disposing a suo moto notice it had issued upon the government on January 4 the same year.

"Juvenile accused are to be transferred to correction homes and other approved homes with utmost expedition," the court had said.

"Juvenile accused in jail must be kept apart from other prisoners," it added.

Both the directives are yet to be implemented in their entirety, according to a source at the National Task Force formed for implementing the HC order.

"The government is yet to establish juvenile courts to try the accused or victim children. The Chief Adviser's office approved the summary to establish juvenile courts in Dhaka, Chittagong, Rajshahi and Khulna," said Dr Shahdeen Malik, a Supreme Court lawyer.

The government, he added, could establish juvenile courts in each district by issuing a mere gazette notification.

Task Force sources said some 319 children, including 47 girls, were in 57 jails in February 2008, while the total number rose to 380, including 49 girls, as of 31 March 2008.

The number increased to 147 from 121 in the jails of Dhaka division, to 123 from 108 in Chittagong division and to 52 from 33 in Rajshahi division.

Meanwhile, some 250 juvenile accused, including 36 girls, were in three KUKs in February 2008, but the number rose to 270 as of 31 March 2008.

The number of children in prison was 992 in March 2004, 913 in March 2005, 508 in March 2006, and 511 in March 2007.

Hundreds of children are sent to jail every year and kept with convicted criminals in violation of the High Court order, although the Children Act 1974 clearly says that children under 16 cannot be sent to jail, the sources said.

Officials at the Task Force said 2,262 children landed in jails across the country in 2005 alone.

The HC ruling has, however, led to some progress, as the number of children who landed in jails was lower in 2007 than in 2004 when nearly 4,000 children were sent to jail.

The sources also said the number of children released from different prisons was higher than the number of children sent to jail in 2007. Some 1,813 children were released in 2007.

The taskforces were formed at national, district and upazilla levels are following the HC directive, but initiatives became irregular at all levels, they said.

The 9th meeting of the National Taskforce for implementing the High Court order on children was held on March 17 after one and half years. There were only 34 taskforce meetings at the district level out of the 57 districts in February 2008, said the sources.