Chapter - 3
Locale and Methodology
The several considerations reflect the expressed rationale of the study to analyze and
understand the deviant behaviour of children in family environment community and society and
the status in children’s institutions. The study confines its universe to one category of children e.g.
(i) children in conflict with Law.
Definitions of Key Terms used:
Psycho-social profile for the present study, the term psycho-social profile refers to feeling,
perception, behaviour relationship in and outside the family and the institutions education, caste,
religion, family back ground, occupation, community life etc. of the respondents.
Rehabilitation vocational training, job placement, family/community settlement or placement
,adoption ,sponsorship, foster care marriage etc.
“Children’s home” means an institution established by a State Government or by voluntary
organization and certified by that government under Section 34 of JJ Act
“Committee” means a Child Welfare Committee constituted under Section 29of JJ ACT45
“Competent authority” means in relation to children in need of care and protection and in
relation to juveniles in conflict with law a JJ Board;
“Fit institution” means a governmental or a registered non-governmental organization or a
voluntary organization prepared to own the responsibility of a child and such organization is
found fit by the competent authority;
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“Fit person” means a person, being a social worker or any other person, who is prepared to own
the responsibility of a child and is found fit by the competent authority to receive and take care of
the child;
“Guardian” in relation to a child, means his natural guardian or any other person having the
actual charge or control over the child and recognized by the competent authority as a guardian in
course of proceedings before that authority;
“Juvenile” or “Child” means a person who has not completed eighteenth year of age;
“Juvenile in conflict with law” means a juvenile who is alleged to have committed an offence;
“Local authority” means Panchayats at the village and Zila Parishad at the district level and shall
also include a Municipal Committee or Corporation or a Cantonment Board or such other body
legally entitled to function as local authority by the Government;
“Observation home” means a home established by a State Government or by a voluntary
organization and certified by that State Government under Section 8 as an observation home for
the juvenile in conflict with law;
“Offence” means an offence punishable under any law for the time being in force;
“Place of safety” means any place or institution (not being a police lock-up or jail), the person In
charge of which is willing temporarily to receive and take care of the juvenile and which, in the
opinion of the competent authority, may be a place of safety for the juvenile;
“Prescribed” means prescribed by rules made under JJ Act;
“Probation officer” means an officer appointed by the State Government as a probation officer
under the Probation of Offenders Act, 1958 (20 of 1958);
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“Public Place” shall have the meaning assigned to it in the Immoral Traffic (Prevention)Act,
1956 (104 of 1956);
“Shelter home” means a home or a drop in center set up under Section 37;
“Special home” means an institution established by a State Government or by a voluntary
organization and certified by that Government under Section 9;
“Special Juvenile police unit” means a unit of the police force of a State designated for handling
of juveniles or children under Section 63;
“State Government” in relation to a Union territory, means the Administrator of that Union
territory appointed by the President under Article 239 of the Constitution;
All words and expressions used but not defined in this Act and defined in the Code of Criminal
Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974), shall have the meanings respectively assigned to them in that Code.
Social handicapped child
Socially handicapped child is the one who is thwarted in full and wholesome development
of his personality by the problem stemming primarily from his social environment. This category
includes the children who are orphans, destitute, neglected, victimized, exploited delinquents and
children of leprosy patients.
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Destitute Child
The working group set up by the ministry of social welfare defined destitute child as one;
(a)
Whose parents are unable to discharge their parental responsibilities on account of
reasons like extreme poverty, ill-health or Lunacy.
(b)
A child without parents or any other near relatives to look after.
(c)
A child without ostensible means of subsistence.
(d)
A child who is forced by the parents into beggary of any other hazardous occupations
(e)
A child whose parents indulge in prostitution, drunkenness or crime. 9
Juvenile in Conflict with Law.
The children act, 1960 in India defines Juvenile delinquent “as child who has committed
an offence” e.g. theft, sexual assault, murder, inflicting injury on others etc. In broader sense,
delinquency does not mean. “Juvenile crime.” It embraces all deviations from normal youthful
behaviour and includes the incorrigible, ungovernable, habitually disobedient and those who
desert their homes and mix with immoral people, those with behavioral problems and indulge in
antisocial practices. Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act, 2000 defines Juvenile in conflict
with law whose act is punishable under IPC.10
Institution
Khandekar (1979)46 defines institution as a place where numbers of dependent children are
cared for. It is also understood as a physical structure with its inner and outer surroundings,
material and non-material environment. It can have two or more programmes (education and
training) and can offer two or more services (care, education, rehabilitation).
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Objectives of the study and Methodology
1..
To know the social profile such as age, education, sex, community family life,
association etc. of children in conflict with law.
2.
To examine the reasons individual, family environment etc. responsible for deviant
behaviour of children in conflict with law.
3.
To know the rehabilitative approaches adopted by correctional institutions for
children in difficult circumstances and its impact on quality of life of children in
conflict with law.
4.
To understand the institutional experiences and life of children particularly their
relationship with other inmates and welfare officials and aspirations of children for
future life.
5.
To suggest appropriate measures to deal with problems of children so as to
establish effective linkages with family community and society.
Hypothesis
The word hypothesis is made up of two Greek roots which mean some sort of "sub
statements", for it is presumptive statements of a preposition, which the investigation seeks to
prove.
This is often referred to as an "Explanation" of the facts, the observer observed. The
observer has a "Theory" about particular mass of facts. This theory when stated in testable
propositions, formally and clearly subjected, to empirical or experimental verification is known as
a hypothesis. The word hypothesis consists of two words:
Hypo + thesis = Hypothesis. 'Hypo' means tentative or subject to the verification. 'Thesis' means
statement about the solution of a problem.
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This is the operational meaning of the term hypothesis. Hypothesis is the composition of
some variables which has some specific position or role of the variables that is to be verifies
empirically.
As mentioned earlier present study attempts to study the Socio-psychological factors
responsible for deviant behaviour of children and impact of rehabilitative measurers adopted in
the institutions as an effort to encourage them to lead normal life in the society. Keeping this point
and objectives of the study in my mind, the following hypotheses are formed:
 Besides insecure family environment, other factors like ecology, sexually victamised
situations etc. also contribute towards deviant behaviour of the child
 Children, who have some inadequacy in themselves or in their relation to environment,
they become frustrated, emotionally disturbed and fall into deviant behaviour as a way
out.
 Institutional care rehabilitation of the child carry negative and painful experience which
result in an "Institutionalised Child Syndrome"
Methodology
After reviewing the existing material/literature a semi-structured schedule including openended questions was prepared and pre-tested in the field. Five case studies have also been
followed for in-depth study of the problem. To analyze the data, the appropriate statistical tools
and SPSS package have been utilized.
Universe
As it is evident from the file of the study the Universe of present study is Delhi based
Juvenile Homes, which are five in numbers ie Two Observation Homes for Boys, one for Girls,
One Place of Safety and one Special Home .Since our study pertains to the children in conflict
with law in Delhi, the sample was restricted to the Observations / Special Homes and Place of
Safety existing in Delhi. Besides information has been collected from the secondary sources from
time to time as per need of the study.
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Sample
It is an established fact that in social research it is neither financially nor physically
possible for the researcher to study the whole universe of study area. Therefore, in order to make
the present study more scientific and practically viable, a suitable size of the sample out of the
whole universe have been drawn with appropriate sample size. The following procedure was
adopted;
i)
First of all, out of all fourteen (14) Homes running in Delhi for treatment of children in
need of care and protection and Children in Conflict with law, five institutions working
for children in conflict with law were selected
for the study of which one institution
represented girl children in conflict with law.
ii)
Accordingly, in order to draw the sample size of Juveniles being rehabilitated in
correctional Institutions, a sample of. fifty percent
from each selected juvenile homes
was randomly selected ie from observation home for boys-I (65), observation home for
boys-II (108) observation home for girls- (22), special home north –(10), and place of
safety – (5) for interview. In this process a total of 210 juveniles were drawn for final
interview. With the hope that this size of sample would fairly represent over all quality of
life and experiences of juveniles placed in Delhi based correctional Institutions.
iii)
In order to verify the information given by juvenile respondents and also to know some
more details about rehabilitation approaches, experiences and knowledge about the
selected juvenile respondents, it was decided to interview two of the welfare officials ie
one from Observation Home for Boys and another from Observation Home for Girls
associated with care and rehabilitation of juveniles for the present study.
iv)
Besides, five case studies one from each selected juveniles home have also been done.
This has provided comprehensive knowledge, experiences, and relationship about
rehabilitation opportunities being enjoyed by children in conflict with law.
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Data Collection Tools
As mentioned earlier, in the present study, case study method was adopted for the purpose
of the study so that the study depicts primacy and validity to the experiences and perceptions of
children. Interview guide and observation checklist was also used. Information was also collected
by studying the case history of child through records available in the Institutions. Discussions
were held with staff of the institutions, peer groups and other related persons. Data was collected
along with the following parameters:
i)
Profile of children in the Institutions (supported by case histories and observations of the
officials of the institutions)
ii)
Perception and experience of children - their true life stories
iii)
Institutional Management - Infrastructure facilities, norms and procedures followed as per
J.J. Rules, 2002 issued by Department of Social Welfare, NCT of Delhi.
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Processing, Analysis and Interpretation:
The collected data from the field was edited coded, decoded, classified and tabulated.
Logical as well as statistical analysis of tabulated data was done. The analyze the data; the
appropriate statistical tools and SPSS package have been used. Necessary interpretations have
been made to arrive at conclusion.
Outcome
It is expected that conclusions/findings of the study would help the policy makers to
review and modify the functioning pattern of children’s institutions for better results. It is also
expected that the recommendations of the study would help improving the system of interaction
between children in difficult circumstances and other caregivers.
Limitations, if any
Human behaviour being complex, unique and influenced by internal as well as external
factors, finding, conclusions derived from one set of respondents would not be applicable to
another set of respondents may it be the same age group.
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