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Legal Research Development ISSN: 2456-3870, Journal home
page: http://www.lrdjournal.com Vol. 07, Issue-I, Sep. 2022 |
Child Sexual Abuse in India under POCSO Act, 2012: A Critical Analysis
a BBA.LL.B.(Hons.) Final Year Law Student,
School of Law, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara, Punjab (India).
b Assistant Professor, School of Law, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara, Punjab (India).
DOI: https://doi.org/10.53724/lrd/v7n1.05
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KEYWORDS |
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ABSTRACT |
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Child Sexual
Abuse, Child Abuse, Sexual Activity, POCSO Act, Children struggles in the
society. |
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When
an adult or a more mature child or adolescent engages in sexual behaviour
with a youngster, this is considered sexual abuse. On the other hand, the
POCSO Act defines a "child" as anyone under the age of 18. Abuse of
a kid can be defined as any action or inaction that causes injury to, or
places a child at danger of harm from, another person. Abuse of children can
take many forms, including sexual, emotional, and physical. Failure to meet a
child's basic requirements constitutes neglect, another kind of maltreatment.
Children who have been abused typically experience more severe emotional harm
than physical harm. Depression is a common symptom of child maltreatment.
It's possible he or she will retreat, entertain suicidal thoughts, or snap. A
child who has reached adulthood may experiment with drugs or alcohol, attempt
to run away, or abuse others. Abuse of children is a terrible issue. Call the
authorities or your state's child welfare department if you have any reason
to believe a child is being mistreated or neglected. The prevention of child
sexual abuse is the focus of this paper, as are recent amendments to the
POCSO Act and related provisions. |
Introduction
Child
Sexually abused Children who are below 18 years of age meet any struggles in
the society. They will be remembering that incident every day. So they get into
the dark life because of this, their mind and soul gets affected and meets with
suicide or they enter into the wrong field (Prostitution). In recent research,
India has the largest number when compared to other countries that Child Sexual
Abuse cases but only few cases of this are coming to our knowledge why because
the affected children hesitate to share what happened to them with their elder
persons. The affected child will think like, others will have a bad image on
them when they share their incident. There are many other reasons for which the
affected child does not open themselves about the incident to others due to
this; there are many issues in our country. The main reason behind the silence
of affected child is, the person who abuses the child will be a known person or
neighbor or the parents of that child will leave them to a caretaker for a
whole day all these are the persons who tend to abuse the children sexually due
to this only, the affected child hesitates to share the problem. Here the
sympathy comes in mind for the affected child so they hide the incident and
keep that within themselves without sharing. Almost 34% of India’s total
populations are children below “18 years of age again, 95% of children” in that
34% are sexually abused/ affected. All these assaults made for children are
happening unknowingly for them other than this, research says that every day
110 children are sexually abused but we only hear a few cases that are
telecasted in the news channels. The reason is those cases are made to hide or
the affected children are not willing to complain about the incident. Ministry of
Women Child and Development took an interview for 12, 0000 girl children below
18 years in that, more than half of the children were reporting that they were
sexually abused also, 20% in that was severely abused but no one has said the
person who abused them to overcome all these problems, the Government gave a
solution that is the POCSO Act this act was released in 2012 but with very
liberal punishment were given for the assaulters and the case which is filed
that has to be closed within a year by giving justice to the affected child but,
this gave another chance for the assaulters to escape easily from the case. In
2019, this act was improved with strict rules and severe punishments for children
below 18 those who are abused by someone can report and file a case under the
POCSO Act. Parents of those children can also file a case instead the police
should not say any reason like the case does not come under their jurisdiction. If
this happens, action will be taken on that police officer this case should
be solved within 3 months and justice must be given to the affected child.
Endnotes
[1] Daily
Updates: Child Sexual Abus: Published on
22/10/2021, https://www.drishtiias.com/daily-updates/daily-news-analysis/child-sexual-abuse, Last
seen 25/07/2022.
[2] Section
09: The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012.
[3]
https://www.aaptaxlaw.com/pocso-act/7-pocso-act-sexual-assault-8-punishment-for-sexual-assault-section-7-8-of-
pocso-act-2012
[4]
Section 09: The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012.
[5] Vikas
vs State, Crl. M.C. 1615/2020 and Crl. M.A. 10300/2020.
[6] Section
161 & 164: The Criminal Procedure Code, 1973.
[7] Geetika
Mantri & Sharadha U: POCSO says child sexual abuse be mandatorily reported:
Why it’s a double-edged sword: Published on 09/06/2021, https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/pocso-says-child-sexual-abuse-be-mandatorily-reported-why-it-s-double-edged-sword-150349, Last
seen 28/07/2022
[8] POSCO
Act-Laws and Acts, Case Report, Bail under the Act: Published on 23 Oct. 2018, https://www.lawnn.com/pocso-act/
(Last seen on 30/07/2022)
[9] Mr.
Ritik Khatri: Critical Analysis of The POSCO Act 2012 And the Recent Amendment
Act 2019: Law Audience Journal: ISSN: 2581-6705, Vol.2, Issue-I, January 2020,
https://www.lawaudience.com/critical-analysis-of-the-pocso-act-2012-and-the-recent-amendment-act-2019/
Last seen 02/08/2022
[10] In
Kathua Rape-Murder, Court Asks For Case Against Probe Team Members: NDTV:
Published on 23/10/2019,
https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/in-kathua-rape-murder-court-asks-for-case-against-sit-members-2121075,
Last seen 02 August 2022.
[11] AIR
1981 SC 361, 1981 CriLJ 1, (1981) 1 SCC 560, 1981 (13) UJ 63 SC
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