Chandni Basu
Chandni Basu is a doctoral researcher at Institute for Sociology,
Albert-Ludwigs University of Freiburg, Germany. Her current research problematises
notions and practices of child protection as operative within the purview of
the juvenile justice system in India. In this, constructions of
childhood/deviance within the institutional space is revoked to provide a
post-colonial critique of a pervasive global childhoods project. She can be
reached at tochandni@gmail.com.
Instances of apprehension of children
from Bangladesh within the juvenile justice system in India provide yet another
scope to look into the border dynamics between Bangladesh and India. The
significance of the international border in terms of close socio-historical,
cultural connections in the region along with the nature of a border formation brings
forth issues of identity, in terms of home-homeland and belonging. The presence
of children at the border amplifies these aspects as it ushers notions of
juvenile justice and child protection within the domain of border dynamics. This
article highlights an interrogation of these notions. It is based on ‘field
visits’, to various juvenile justice boards, child welfare committees and state
institutional homes for apprehended children in West Bengal, India. These were
carried on in-between 2011-12.
My
interactions with NGO personnel and officials within the juvenile justice
system brought forth the reality of apprehended children from Bangladesh, who
constitutes the largest section of children-in-conflict with law at state
institutional homes in West Bengal. This scenario urges one to pose the following interrogations:
- How does the dynamic
of an international border, between Bangladesh and India, in terms of
inter-state relations and close socio-historical and cultural ties impact the
presence of apprehended children from Bangladesh at the state institutional homes
in West Bengal? And how does their presence bear upon ideas of home-homeland
and belonging in conjunction with the operationalisation of juvenile justice and
child protection within the Indian juvenile justice system?
The status of
children from Bangladesh within the Indian juvenile justice system is marked
mostly on the basis of a gendered segregation. This results in girls being
termed as victims of human trafficking while boys are apprehended and taken as
children-in-conflict with law under the Indian Foreigner’s Act, 1946. In the
state narrative of borders, they are therefore deemed to be undesirable
outsiders of illegal immigration. The economy and
ethos of their presence within the state institutional homes however subverts
such connotation, almost in contradiction to the dominant state narrative of
borders. Their identity as outsiders is deemed to be less significant within
the institutional space. They are taken to be harmless and trustworthy and
their actions of border crossing as minor acts of apprehension,
especially in comparison to more serious crimes like rape and murder by their
local counterparts within the institutional perils.
This entails a character of liminality to the
presence of children from Bangladesh within the state institutional homes in West
Bengal, in resonance to the liminality of borders.
What however sets the children
from Bangladesh apart from their local counterparts is the encompassing presence
or absence of ‘home’. The visitor’s day at the institutional space, in this
regard brings forth daunting reminder to the children from Bangladesh about the
absence of their homes. Absent visitors for the children from Bangladesh
carries along with it the message of their homelessness. Usual comforts of home
cooked food and other goodies are therefore denied to them. The rhetorical
meaning of the visitor’s day becomes noteworthy. Earlier connotations as
trustworthy ‘insiders’ is over ridden on this day, confirming the identity of
the children from Bangladesh as ‘outsiders’ after all. Successful repatriation
efforts by state machineries are posed as the moment of hope for them to return
home one day. As most of them continue to stay for long periods within
institutional boundaries what remain evasive are their sentiments and emotions of
home-homeland and belonging. State repatriation drives along with agendas of
juvenile justice and child protection fail to recognise and accommodate these
emotions. Obsessive efforts to find out the correct address from children only
confirm the compulsory territorial identification of people as citizens and
non-citizens thus deeming the validity of their presence or absence. The
identity of citizenship as the basis of modern state structures, in this regard
necessitates one’s belonging to the criteria of home-homeland. The historical
genealogy of the international border between Bangladesh and India remains
momentary here as it introduces the problematic of identity. The significance
of borders as spatial-temporal zone emerges to be significant in its capacity
to shape and reshape identities. It lingers in the lives of the children from
Bangladesh as they leave ‘desh’ in search of ‘bidesh’. [i] The idea
of home-homeland and belonging in conjunction with the formal category of
citizenship comes forth here.
Practices and nature of juvenile
justice and child protection within the Indian juvenile justice system however
remain a far cry to address the persistent presence of children from Bangladesh
within institutional spaces. In this the legal mechanism itself is rendered to
be a liminal zone, as the border space, where ideas of home-homeland and
belonging are perpetually held in suspension for the children from Bangladesh.
Their apprehension however induces a temporal dimension to the notion of
belonging in terms of the formal criteria of citizenship. It foregrounds the
othering of all children as ‘yet to be’ in an adult world. Identities of
citizenship and nationality for all children hence extend the zone of
possibilities as epitomised in the formulation of children as future citizens.
The membership of a particular political community and the possibility for
democratic participation, or at least some kind of self-determination for the
migrant remain essential questions to be determined for children as a population
group at large (Parker and Brasett, 2005: 240). This puts forth the situation
of indecision that encompass issues of migration. The problematic, as
introduced in this article, is enhanced by migrant children. It provides an
opportunity where the temporal and spatial aspects of childhood interact with
migration at the international border. As the legal mechanism grapples with the
situation, the paraphernalia of the Indian juvenile justice system makes
evident the redundancy of its scope as it attempts to achieve juvenile justice
and child protection in the best interest of children. What remains beyond
official initiatives are the quest and negotiations for home-homeland and
belonging by the children from Bangladesh, through their everyday presence in
India whether inside or outside institutional perils.
Even as most children from
Bangladesh continue to wait for long years to be successfully ‘returned’, their
presences itself within or outside institutional spaces in India establishes
moments of insurrection. It represents their stories of experiences of justices
and injustices in terms of border crossings. This reinforces the idea of
borders beyond state narratives of undesirable outsiders.
A recent comment by one of the
juvenile justice board member in West Bengal points to regulatory revisions
like the advisory issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India
dated 01.05.2012 on restrictions regarding apprehension of ‘foreign’ children
or the Operational Guidelines for the West Bengal Task Force (2013) on
apprehension of children only in cases of possession of fake currency or arms.
She specifies that since then, no child from Bangladesh has been presented at the
board for apprehension. What she misses is the dynamics of child protection,
which now lurk upon all children from Bangladesh within Indian institutional
spaces to be deemed as ‘victims’ of human trafficking. The matter remains far
from resolution!
This is an excerpt from a chapter published in
‘Changing India: yesterday, today and tomorrow’, Winshield, New Delhi, 2015.
ISBN 819307030-5.
[i] The etymological significance and connotation of desh
(homeland) and bidesh (foreign land) remain pivotal here in terms
of its spatial connotation.
No comments:
Post a Comment