The current population at the Children’s Reform Home in Biratnagar has reached 219, significantly exceeding its designed capacity of 50 residents, leading to severe overcrowding issues. Due to overcapacity, children in the correctional home have to be deprived of their basic rights. Milan Chauhan, the Chief of the children’s correctional home, informed that due to overcrowding, problems including challenges with sleeping, dining, and providing adequate healthcare have aroused.
Currently, there are 119 children serving sentences for rape cases, 32 for homicide cases, 16 for drug-related offenses, and 19 for sexual abuse cases residing in the children’s correctional home. Pravin Silakar, a social worker at the Biratnagar Children’s Correctional Home, explained that because it is the only children’s correctional home in the province, they are compelled to accommodate many children despite exceeding their capacity. As there is no option but to keep the children sent by court order, not only from Koshi province, children from other districts also have to be accommodated.
There is a problem in their management when the number of children has to be accommodated more than the capacity, said Pravin Silakar. Children who have committed crimes should still receive proper care in terms of their nutrition, living conditions, education, and health treatment. However, in the children’s correctional home, they are forced to live in congested conditions.Due to more children than the facility’s capacity, some of them have to sleep on the floor, and two children have to share one bed because of the shortage of beds. Children from 14 districts in the Koshi province are sent to correctional homes to serve their sentences for various crimes, including murder and rape. Currently, a child from the Madhesh province, who is accused of rape, is kept in the Children’s Correctional Home in Biratnagar.
Somraj Thapa, the Koshi Province Coordinator for INSEC, expressed concerns that overcrowding in children’s correctional homes has hindered the mental, physical, intellectual, and educational progress of the children. According to the new law on children, there will be no punishment for any crime committed by a child under the age of 10. For 10 to 14-year-olds who commit any serious crime, they will face imprisonment for up to 6 months. For 14 to 16-year-olds, they will be sentenced to half of the punishment for adults, and for 16 to 18-year-olds, they will be sentenced to 75% of the punishment imposed on adults. If children under 18 years of age commit a crime, they are placed in a juvenile correctional facility with the aim of reforming them, as per the law.
However, Somraj Thapa, INSEC coordinator pointed out that the management of Biratnagar Children’s Correctional Home is not significantly different from that of regular prisons. Currently, there are 219 children in the children’s correctional home, with 70 of them in the process of trial for various crimes. Currently, there are 65 children from Jhapa, 41 from Morang, 38 from Sunsari, 14 from Udaipur, 13 from Panchthar, 10 from Bhojpur, 7 from Okhaldhunga, 6 from Sankhuwasabha, 8 from Dhankuta, 4 from Tehrathum, 3 from Ilam, and one each from Solukhumbu and Bara serving their sentences in the correctional home.
Children’s Correctional Home, Biratnagar has been operating since August 19, 2018 with the help of USEF, a non-governmental organization. The Children’s Correctional Home Secondary School has been established to provide education to the children within the Children’s Correctional Home.