CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu often takes pride in its police to public ratio, but a recent report by the Bureau of Police Research and Development revealed that in cases related to juveniles, the state lags behind even Bihar and Jharkhand. While there are 46 separate police stations for children in Bihar and 26 in Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu has none. Bihar even has a Special Juvenile Police Unit.
As per the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, every police station should have a separate official in the rank of an inspector to deal with such cases. Tamil Nadu, however, does not have any designated officer in that role. “To deal with cases involving children, all stations in those states have designated officers who wear civil dress. Some stations even have separate rooms for juvenile accused,” said Job Zachariah, chief of UNICEF Tamil Nadu and Kerala, who served there before coming to Chennai.