BENGALURU: Eight undertrials, aged between 15 and 18, escaped on Sunday afternoon from the observation home for juvenile undertrials at Madivala here.“After lunch on Sunday, the minors were let into a classroom where they could watch TV. Some went to a toilet attached to the room, broke open the window, and escaped from there,” according to Vasanthi, the Superintendent of the facility.Vasanthi said that one of the escapees had returned to the facility. Parents of the other remaining undertrials and the police stations concerned had been informed, she said.
She said that among those escaped, some were facing charges of heinous crimes.
Vasanthi attributed shortage of staff at the facility as one of the reasons for the repeated escapes. She said, “Though eight Home Guard personnel have been allotted to us, only three are currently deployed. We also have shortage of regular staff and departmental staff, especially group D employees.” She said the Department of Women and Child Welfare had been informed of the shortage.This is the second such incident in the past one month; six minors had escaped earlier. Of them, five had returned to the facility on their own, while one is still missing.
A source said many times, the minors returned to the facility by themselves, after just visiting their parents for a few days.Speaking on why minors feel the need to break out, Vasudev Sharma, director of the NGO ‘Child Rights Trust,’ said, “Nobody wants to be kept in confinement, especially kids who have experienced a world where they are free.” He said often, the minors themselves did not exactly grasp the reason for them being put in the home, even if they had faced a trial. “Whatever act they would have done will not be a crime in their eyes,” he said.
He added that if minors were kept in a space without them being involved in any activity or without counselling, they were bound to want to get out of the space. He also highlighted the fact that many minors were not given bail. Speaking on the observation home being short-staffed, Sharma said if that was the case, it was an injustice to child rights.