80% of arrested juveniles come from extremely poor families: govt data

Even as the parliament is mulling a stricter bill on juvenile crimes, around 80 per cent of the juveniles apprehended by the police in last three years - 2012, 2013 and 2014 - came from families having annual income of up to Rs 50 thousand or less, as per the government data.

Moreover, around half of the juveniles apprehended in last three years came from families having annual income of up to Rs 25,000 only, said the government data analysis. Only 0.007 per cent of the juveniles came from families with a family income of Rs 3 lakh or above.

The government apprehended 39,822, 43,506 and 48,230 juveniles in 2012, 2013 and 2014 respectively for various cognizable crimes under Indian Penal Code (IPC) as well as for Special and Local Laws (SLL). Out of the total apprehended, 31,409, 33,745 and 37,622 in 2012, 2013 and 2014 respectively of the juveniles belonged to families with annual incomes of Rs 50,000 or less. The government revealed this data in response to a question in Parliament.

The data presented also showed the rise in the juvenile crimes in country. In Delhi itself, the government apprehended 2,547 juveniles last year compared to 1,572 juveniles taken in custody in 2012 - a 62 per cent increase. Out of 2,547 arrested in Delhi, 1252 belongedto families having annual incomes of less than Rs 25,000. Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra apprehended thelargest number of juveniles - 7,802 and 7,228 respectively - in 2014. Bihar saw a 204 per cent increase in the number of juveniles apprehended last year - from 2104 in 2013 to 6,404 in 2014.