THE JUVENILE JUSTICE SYSTEM IN INDIA: EVOLUTION, FRAMEWORK, AND CHALLENGES

Juvenile justice in India sits between two ideas that do not always fit together: helping a child grow into a better adult, and punishing a wrong that was done. This paper looks at how India's laws for children who break the law have changed over time, starting with the Apprentices Act of 1850 from the colonial period, moving through the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act of 2015, and its 2021 amendment. It explains the system set up by the current law, including Juvenile Justice Boards, Child Welfare Committees, observation homes, and special homes, and shows how these connect to India's Constitution and to international agreements such as the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Using data from the National Crime Records Bureau and recent court judgments, the paper also looks at how the law works in real life: the debate over trying older teenagers as adults after the 2012 Delhi case, the gap between what the law promises and what the system actually delivers, and the ongoing question of whether punishment or rehabilitation should come first. The paper argues that India's laws for children are, on paper, fairly progressive compared to many other countries, but that in practice the system is weakened by boards that do not have enough staff, childcare homes that are poorly checked, and a public conversation shaped more by shocking individual cases than by the full picture.