Good news: 52% juveniles pulled out from crime world by Nagpur Police
   Date :16-Jan-2020
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By Dheeraj Fartode :
 
A CLEAR mindset and sustained efforts to achieve a goal can make a world of difference. This was how the Nagpur Police worked on juvenile delinquents and brought down the soaring graph of crimes committed by minors by around 52 per cent in a year. As against 239 crimes committed by juveniles in year 2018, Nagpur Police have recorded 124 crimes in 2019 by juveniles under Indian Penal Code. The big difference of 115 cases was achieved as the City Police engaged the juveniles in various programmes under Counselling and Reformative Education Centre (CARE) programme.
 

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The CARE concept is the brainchild of Commissioner of Police (CP) Dr. Bhushan Kumar Upadhyay, who had done micro-analysis of the juvenile delinquency during his long stint as Indian Police Officer (IPS). Under CARE initiative launched in September 2019, the City Police formed a special cell and appointed Juvenile Care Officer at all police stations.
 
Dr. Upadhyay informed ‘The Hitavada’ that youth encouragement was done in their respective fields, by organising regular cricket matches and other sports for juveniles, education and treatment regarding substance abuse, youth mentoring programmes, parenting education, and emotional support. “We are trying to show them the beauty of life,” the CP said. “Similarly, the massive crackdown against 13 gangs of criminals in city also sent right message to the crime world. These goons were using juveniles for committing crime and were also giving them shelter. As the kingpins were put behind the bars, there was no one to push the child to commit crime,” the CP said.
 
The CP further said that minors quickly get attracted to the world of crime as they are unaware of the consequences. They suffer from low self-esteem and some are left to fend for themselves at a tender age. The influence of peer group and attraction towards the present culture of show-off are also to be blamed for dragging the juveniles in crime world. Under CARE initiative, the police staff made juveniles understand the importance of respecting the boundaries of others, he claimed.
 
State police following Nagpur Police’s CARE Director General of Police (DGP) Subodh Jaiswal in his standing order released in June 2019 had ordered all unit heads to follow the CARE scheme of Nagpur Police along with five other community policing schemes launched by other police units. 
 
Barring murder, rape and hurt, crime by juveniles drop in all heads ACCORDING to statistics, barring murder, rape and hurt cases, juvenile crime is showing a descending graph in year 2019 against year 2018. As against five murder cases in 2018, involvement of juveniles was found in six murders in year 2019 with increase of one case. Rape cases increased to 10 in 2019 from seven in 2018. A total of eight attempts to murder were reported in 2018 which reduced to seven in 2019. Kidnapping cases decreased to three last year from eight in 2018. As against two cases of dacoity in 2018, not a single dacoity was committed by juveniles last year. Involvement of juveniles also reduced in robberies, burglaries, thefts and riots. Importantly, against 84 thefts committed by juveniles in 2018, city police recorded involvement of juveniles in just 46 thefts in 2019.