86% arrested juveniles lived with parents: Data

BENGALURU: From growing divorce cases of parents to dysfunctional families to a changing atmosphere in schools and colleges, children aged below 18 in India are increasingly finding it difficult to cope with situations and are straying, reveals an analysis of the latest crime statistics.
Raising questions on the belief that children without parents and those living on the streets are more prone to committing crimes, data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) shows a meagre 3.5% of all juveniles arrested for various crimes in 2016 were homeless.
An analysis of the family background of juveniles arrested in 2016 shows that 38,061or 86% of the 44,171 minors apprehended lived with their parents, while another 4,550 (10.3%) lived with guardians. Only 1,560 of them were homeless.

Parents have less time for children: Experts
The social environment is changing constantly. The way children spend time in schools is changing, with less friendship and more competition; parents have less time to give their children and we see a lot of cases where children come from families that have no financial problems, which indicates that the problem is something else,” Child Rights Trust director Nagasimha G Rao, who deals with hundreds of cases involving juveniles in conflict with law, said.
Experts said how parents, especially in growing cities and towns, are faced with challenging dynamics, both financially and socially, which leaves them very little time with children. “It’s no more a competitive society but a self-centred unit that’s building up pressure on kids, in turn, entire society is suffering from lack of emotional regulation,” Child Welfare Committee chairperson Anjali Ramanna said.
Speaking from a child rights perspective, Rao said parents must dedicate two hours every day to interact with their kids. However, in all cases that activists see, whether it is murder or other crimes, this does not happen.