There are two categories of juveniles as defined in the Juvenile Justice Act, 1986 i.e. delinquent juveniles and neglected juveniles.
A delinquent juvenile is defined under section 2(e) to mean a juvenile who has been found to have committed an offence.
Section 2 (l) states that a neglected juvenile means a juvenile who (i) is found begging; or (ii) is found without having any home or settled place of abode and without any ostensible means of subsistence and is destitute; or (iii) has a parent or guardian who is unfit or incapacitated to exercise control over the juvenile; or (iv) lives in a brothel or with a prostitute or frequently goes to any place used for the purpose of prostitution, or is found to associate with any prostitute or any other person who leads immoral, drunken or depraved life; or (v) who is being or is likely to be abused or exploited for immoral or illegal purposes or unconscionable gain. However, there was no uniformity in the age of a boy and a girl who were to be declared as delinquent juveniles. The threshold age for a boy to be considered as a juvenile was sixteen years, whereas for a girl it was eighteen years. Section 2(h) defined juvenile to mean a boy who was below the age of sixteen years or a girl who has not attained the age of eighteen years.