A crumbling system is depriving India's young offenders of a 'second chance'
6 minutes ago Share Save Cherylann Mollan Share Save
Getty Images Experts say that India's juvenile justice law isn't properly implemented in many places (Representative image)
Pooja* was 16 years old when she was accused of murdering her mother. The teenager, who lived with her alcoholic stepfather in a poor neighbourhood in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, was arrested in 2018 and sent to jail. Her lawyer told the police that Pooja was a minor. According to Indian law, she should have been produced before a Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) - a three-member bench that deals with matters concerning children in conflict with the law - within 24 hours of her arrest. But this was not done, Yamina Rizvi, a lawyer who took over Pooja's case in 2024, told the BBC.
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