Committees in every upazila to fight juvenile gangs, headed by UNOs with police chiefs as member-secretaries

Keeping the safety of the country's young people and students in mind, the home ministry has decided to form special committees at the upazila level to prevent 'kishore gangs' — emerging juvenile criminal groups. The initiative has been taken to stop criminal activity through direct government oversight and overall coordination of the local administration.

The decision was confirmed on Monday in a press release signed by Faisal Hasan, public relations officer of the home ministry. According to the release, one such prevention committee will be formed in every upazila of the country.

The ministry has also fixed the structure of the committees. The Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) of the respective upazila will chair each committee, while the officer-in-charge (OC) of the local police station has been made its member-secretary.

The structure brings the civil administration and the police under one umbrella, so that there is no gap between decision-making and implementation at the field level. Led by the UNO as head of the upazila administration, the committee will coordinate all local stakeholders, while the police station will handle the legal side.

As the backdrop to the decision, the release said the spread of gang culture and group criminal tendencies among juveniles and young people in different parts of the country has created a worrying situation. The involvement of a section of school- and college-going students in this trend has also become a cause for concern for parents and educational institutions.

The government's stated aims are to bring these juveniles back from the path of crime, build social awareness and strengthen surveillance by law-enforcement agencies. That is why the matter is being brought under an institutional framework.

The committees will work in coordination with parents, teachers, social representatives and civil society at the local level. Their job will be to monitor the movements of juvenile gangs and help take necessary legal and social preventive measures.

The initiative, in other words, is not only about crackdowns; prevention and awareness have been emphasised as well. Involving teachers and parents is expected to create a way to watch juveniles' movements from the school level and to identify at-risk teenagers early.

In recent years, reports of juvenile-gang activity have come from various areas, including incidents of violence. In many cases, these groups of teenagers have been found entangled with patronage from influential quarters or local power struggles, which has made the situation more complicated.

Against that backdrop, a standing committee in every upazila will give complaints and information a fixed destination. With the joint leadership of the UNO and the OC, the committees are also expected to be able to act quickly.

What remains to be seen is how quickly the announced committees are actually formed at the field level, and how effective a role they can play — with parents, teachers and the local community alongside — in turning juveniles away from the path of crime.