Click to play videoBangalore: Only six of the 46 juvenile delinquents, who jumped the walls of a government remand home in Bangalore on Sunday afternoon, have been found so far.
The children made a hole in the roof of the bathroom, climbed out onto a tree, and then to the parapet wall of the building and made their escape. This is the second time in just over a year that there's been a break.
While his son isn't one of them, Nurullah, parent of a juvenille delinquent, still accuses the remand home authorities of the lack of care.
After the news broke, Nurullah reached the government remand home in Bangalore to meet his son, who'd been there for a week. "My son had a gash on his head and they hadn't put ant stitches on it. I have seen him only once after he was brought here," he says.
It's not just Nurullah, minister of women and child welfare, HK Kumaraswamy, isn't too happy either: "The living conditions are not sufficient and we have to make many reformations and renovate the building. We are looking into this."
But that may not be the only reason. In 2005, 17 children escaped from the home before being tracked down and brought back. Most of them were part of this time's breakaway gang.
While a juvenile court decides how long they stay in a remand home, most offenders aren't released until someone comes to claim them. No wonder, a number of those who ran away from the Bangalore home have outstayed their sentence since they have nowhere to go.
Another, perhaps more serious issue, is that the remand home system is geared towards penalising, not reform.
"There is nothing called concept of reform because reforms means giving them all that they need individually and collectively. They need education, a revival, a rejuvenation, care and love," says Kiran Bedi, the first and highest ranking woman police officer of the country.
There's no routine, studying is optional and vocational courses are limited. Also, physical and sexual abuse is common as minor and hardened offenders are kept together.
No one knows why exactly these children escaped from this remand home in Bangalore.
Some say a few of them were due to be released long back, while others say there was a lot of mental pressure on these children. Whatever the reason, one hopes that this is the last such incident.
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