Jayendu Juvenile Reform Center of Banke (File Photo)
SURKHET: The Karnali Province Government has decided to build a juvenile reform home in Birendranagar of Surkhet.
Presenting the budget for fiscal year 2024/25, Minister for Economic Affairs and Planning Mahendra KC said necessary arrangements have been made to begin the construction of a juvenile reform home in Surkhet in the upcoming fiscal year.
Although calls to open a juvenile reform home in Karnali have been made for the past many years, this is the first time that the province government has taken the initiative in this direction.
In the lack of a juvenile reform home in the province, children involved in different criminal activities in the province have been kept at such facilities in other provinces. According to SSP Bir Bahadur Oli of the Karnali Provincial Police Office, 86 children have been kept at the Jayendru Juvenile Reform Home in Dadura of Banke, while over 100 are taking refuge in such facilities in Bhaktapur, Pokhara, Biratnagar and Dharan, among others.
Bimala Kaucha Magar, the head of the Jayendru Juvenile Reform Center of Banke, said children from Karnali have been kept in the reform center for a long time. “We have a total of 268 children. The highest number, 130 children, are from Lumbini Province,” Magar said.
SSP Oli said there is no facility to shelter children involved in criminal incidents in Karnali Province. “When the court orders detention for children involved in criminal activities, they must be kept in a reform center. Since there are no such facilities in the 10 districts of Karnali Province, they are sent to juvenile reform centers in other provinces,” he added.
According to the Karnali Provincial Police Office, the court has sent 160 children to reform centers over the past five years.
Minister for Social Development of Karnali Province, Bir Bahadur Shahi, said the province government, albeit late, has included a program to open a juvenile reform center in the province. “Once this center comes into operation, we won’t have to send children to such facilities out of the province,” he added.
