Children to get a voice in court

Children under 18 who have broken the law or been abused will for the first time have the right to influence decisions affecting their future.

Till now, the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act had no provisions for the child's opinion to be considered. All decisions were taken unilaterally by the government or child courts.

Now, new rules prepared by the Centre enshrine the right of a child to be heard "in all matters affecting his interest".

The women and child development ministry has sent the rules to all states, senior officials have told The Telegraph.

The states have to pass the rules in their Assembles or prepare a set of guidelines, which the Centre can scrutinise.

The officials are, however, silent on how the right is to be implemented and some child rights activists say this has left scope for its misuse.

Chapter 2 of the new rules, which lists the guiding principles for implementing the act, explains the "right to be heard" in some detail.

"Every child's right to express his views freely in all matters affecting his interest shall be fully respected through every stage in the process of juvenile justice," one provision says.

If the child is physically or mentally disadvantaged, it is the government's responsibility to create "developmentally appropriate tools and processes of interacting with the child".

The aim, the rules say, is to promote "children's active involvement in decisions regarding their own lives" and to provide "opportunities for discussion and debate".

"This is really positive. It is a right we have been demanding for a while, and it is positive that the government has finally accepted the right of the child to be heard," said Shireen Miller of Save the Children, a child rights NGO.

Kailash Satyarthi, the head of Bachpan Bachao Andolan, however, called the right a "double-edged sword".

"If a child is asked by a of police officers what he or she wants to do, the child is likely to say what they want to hear out of fear," Satyarthi said.

A child's views must be presented before a team including social activists and psychiatrists to avoid such misuse, he added.

Officials said the new rules were in keeping with India's commitments to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. "Several of our earlier rules were out of tune with UNCRC requirements," an official said.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1071118/asp/nation/story_8561442.asp