Life Skills Devleopment Programme for the Mental Health of Juveniles in Kerala, India

Juveniles who are institutionalised in juvenile homes for care and protection are often perceived as detrimental to society who cannot be moulded into fruitful persons. This negative perception towards institutionalised children prevails even among officials of juvenile homes because of repeated incidences of juveniles escaping from juvenile homes, violence, unhealthy sexual behaviour and recidivism of criminal behaviour both during and after institutionalisation. This paper throws light on the fact that mere institutionalisation and vocation based training is not sufficient to build the juvenile’s skills for facing adverse circumstances of life. This paper is an endeavour to seek the attention of social welfare department of Kerala about the need to inculcate life skills training in juvenile homes not only to improve the mental health of juveniles but also to equip them with the necessary skills for facing the challenges of life. The paper is framed on experimental methodology with the aim to find out the significant levels of improvement that a life skills development programme can bring forth in the mental health of juveniles in juvenile homes