350 children continue to languish in jails

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Three hundred and fifty children are languishing in 57 jails in the country, although the High Court (HC) ordered the prison authorities more than five years ago to either release the child prisoners or transfer them to juvenile development centres.

Among the currently imprisoned children, 298 are boys and 52 are girls.

The authorities also have yet to comply with an HC order, issued on June 2 this year, directing the jail authorities to release on bail from Kushtia jail a convict who had been sentenced while he had been a juvenile.

According to human rights organisations, the total number of detained children was 380 in April this year, 330 of whom were boys and 50 were girls. The number of girl detainees however went up by two till May 31.

On April 9, 2003 an HC bench of Justice Amirul Kabir Chowdhury and Justice Nizamul Huq directed the government to withdraw all cases against child prisoners under 12 years of age, and to immediately transfer all child prisoners from jails to juvenile development centres.

According to the HC directives, detained children whose cases cannot be withdrawn should be released on bail, and those who cannot be released on bail should be separated from adult prisoners.

Legal experts and human rights activists however said although the HC directives were not followed fully, the situation has improved a bit over the recent years.

“Due to some practical difficulties like a lack of transports and long distances between children development centres and the courts, the government has to detain the children in jails. The government should try its level best to solve the logistical problem,” Dr Shahdeen Malik said.

He also said judges should order the authorities to release the detained children into the custody of their parents or guardians.

A recent study conducted by Save the Children UK, however, shows due to special attention and efforts of the chief judicial magistrate of Dhaka, the number of children in Dhaka Central Jail went down drastically this year from 63 to 14, while the number of residents in three Kishore Unnayan Kendras (juvenile development centre) increased from 270 to 282.

According to the study report, among the 57 jails where children are imprisoned, the number of them increased in 14, went down in 19 while in 11 the number remained steady this year. There was no child in 13 jails in the month of May this year.

On June 2 this year, following an application from Advocate Fahima Nasrin, a human rights activist, an HC bench of Justice Md Iman Ali and Justice Md Emdadul Haque directed the authorities concerned to release on bail Zahidul Hasan Roney, detained in Kushtia jail, who had been 16 at the time of his sentencing and was still in jail till last night.

Fahima Nasrin told The Daily Star that there are a number of precedents of the authorities either flouting HC directives or dillydallying in complying with those regarding release of detained children.

As an example she cited the case of 14 year-old Zafar who had been detained in Cox’s Bazar Jail, the HC in September 2007 granted him bail but the jail authorities released him three months later in December.

The Sessions Judge’s Court in Kushtia sentenced Roney to 10 years imprisonment in a murder case on August 14, 2006, directing the authorities concerned to keep him in the juvenile development centre in Jessore till he reaches 18. On May 8 this year he became 18 and was sent to Kushtia Jail to serve his time.

The authorities of the juvenile development centre recently made a recommendation to the social welfare ministry that Roney should be freed, as he developed a good character during his stay in the centre.

But the ministry ignored the recommendation, prompting Advocate Fahima to file the petition with the HC.

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