Children and Legal Literacy

Functioning of democracy is replenished by the awareness of the people. Legal awareness is equally important as socio cultural awareness. Public legal education saves not only individuals but also society as a whole. Interests of the individuals and communities are to be protected to attain the goal of development. Laws and legal machineries are having a prominent role in this regard. In the present days of welfare legislation the duty of the legislature has widened. They have to make enactment with respect to each and every subject related with human life. But enactment alone is not sufficient. What is enacted should be conveyed to the people for whom it is being enacted.Though our legislative body make legislations regarding so many subjects connected with our life the knowledge regarding such laws is not conveyed to them. It is a sad situation because there are laws to protect the people but the people do not know that there are laws to save them from difficulties. Population of a country consists of different categories depending on the purpose for which they are categorized.Based on age there are children, youths and aged people. Each of these groups needs special treatment. To protect the interests of child community there are constitutional provisions. There are various Acts intending for their welfare. Multifarious institutions are formed as per the provisions of such welfare legislations for the sake of country's child community. All these legal norms and institutions are having international standard also because many of the related statutes are enacted as per the clarion calls of the United Nations Organizations to its member countries. All such statues and institutions are meant for different phases of child community, such as, education, health, child labour, juvenile delinquency etc. So there are statues to coordinate the education of the children, to control and regulate child labour, to check and control juvenile delinquency and the like. The thing that is to be noted is that in spite of laws related with education many children are illiterate; in spite of laws to control and regulate child labour children are being employed in hazardous work and subjected them to exploitation; in spite of laws to check and control juvenile delinquency the number of juveniles in conflict with law is increasing and in spite of laws to protect children from sexual exploitation many children are being subjected to sexual atrocities. Thus child community is being mentally, physically, emotionally and sexually exploited by the unscrupless people around them. The thing that is to be considered seriously is that lack of awareness of society, in general and children in particular regarding the concerned laws is one among the several reasons responsible for the pathetic condition of the child community of the nation. So legal awareness to the members of the society regarding the provisions contained in the related laws will make them thoughtful about the implications of such laws in the life of each members of the society if they violate it. Thus the fear created through the legal awareness will force them to abstain from the violations of legal provisions. Thus finally it will become their way of life. Hence programmes are to be designed to impart legal awareness to the members of the society. Nazarudeen. E"Children and Legal Literacy" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-2 | Issue-4 , June 2018, URL: http://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd13099.pdf http://www.ijtsrd.com/humanities-and-the-arts/other/13099/children-and-legal-literacy/nazarudeen-e