KATHMANDU, SEPTEMBER 26

The National Human Rights Commission has started monitoring juvenile correction homes across the country after the recent violence in these homes.

The NHRC has written to all the provincial branch offices to monitor the condition of all eight juvenile correctional homes in Morang, Parsa, Makawanpur, Bhaktapur, Kaski, Rupandehi, Banke, and Doti districts and submit a report as soon as possible.

The rights body said that its serious attention was drawn to incidents of vandalism and clashes that took place recently in the juvenile correction homes of Bhaktapur, Banke and Parsa districts.

A team from the central office of the NHRC has been deployed to carry out on-site investigation regarding the incident in Bhaktapur. Likewise, a team of Lumbini Province Branch Office, Nepalgunj, is continuously monitoring the incident at the juvenile correction home of Duduwa Rural Municipality in Banke.

Kamal Basnet, who was suffering from a general illness in the correctional home of Bhaktapur, had recently died due to lack of treatment and a group of children doing time there had run away breaking out of the correctional facility.

The NHRC has received information through various sources that Sulabh KC of Rupandehi, who was seriously injured in a clash between two groups in the correctional facility of Banke died during treatment. According to statistics of the Department of Prison Management, around 1,150 children are doing time in correctional homes for their involvement in juvenile delinquencies.

A juvenile delinquent is a person who is under the age of 18 and commits an act, that otherwise would have been charged as crime if s/he was an adult. The minors, who commit a crime punishable by law, are kept in correction homes instead of jail as per the court order. Existing Children Act has a provision of children's court to conduct proceedings, hearings and adjudication of offences committed by children.

A version of this article appears in the print on September 27, 2023, of The Himalayan Times