POCSO Act, 2012:
- The Act seeks to protect children from offences such as sexual assault, sexual harassment, and pornography.
- The Act defines a child as any person below eighteen years of age.
- It defines different forms of sexual abuse, including penetrative and non-penetrative assault, as well as sexual harassment and pornography.
- The burden of proof lies on the accused – punishment has been provided for false complaints or false information with malicious intent.
Role of police:
- The Act casts the police in the role of child protectors during the investigative process.
- Responsibility of making urgent arrangements for the care and protection of the child
- Bringing the matter in front of the Child Welfare Committee (CWC)
Safeguards:
- The Act also makes provisions for the medical examination of the child designed to cause as little distress as possible.
- It provides for special courts that conduct the trial in-camera and without revealing the identity of the child.
- The Act stipulates that a case of child sexual abuse must be disposed of within one year from the date the offence is reported.
Mandatory reporting:
- In keeping with the best international child protection standards, the Act also casts a legal duty upon a person who has knowledge that a child has been sexually abused to report the offence if he fails to do so, he may be punished with six months imprisonment and/ or a fine.
POCSO e-Box
- POCSO e-Box launched in 2016 is an online complaint box for reporting child sexual abuse.
- It is a National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) initiative to help children report such crimes directly to the Commission.
- The online complaint management system enables easy reporting and timely action against the offenders under the POCSO Act, 2012.
POCSO AMENDMENT ACT, 2019
- To introduce the death penalty as a punishment for offences of penetrative sexual assault and aggravated penetrative sexual assault.
The following cases will be treated as “aggravated offences”
- Cases of sexual assault by police officers
- by members of the armed forces,
- by public servants,
- by relatives,
- gang-penetrative sexual assault,
- where the survivor is less than 12 years old and
- attempt to inject hormones in children to attain early sexual maturity for the purpose of penetrative sexual assault
- A hefty fine would be imposed for not deleting, not destroying child pornographic material or not reporting child pornography.