The police made arrests after they received a complaint at the Mandawali Police Station from the family of the victim.  The harrowing incident occurred on March 20, at the home of a tuition teacher in Pandav Nagar, East Delhi, according to police reports.

The victim was referred to AIIMS for treatment. The following day of the incident on March 24, Delhi Minister Atishi had written a letter to Lt Governor V K Saxena and urged for strong and quick action against the perpetrator of the assault and to provide a safe environment for women in Delhi, “Today I am writing to you not just as a minister, but as a woman who lives in Delhi. Article 239AA of the Constitution gives you the responsibility of police and public order. Kindly ensure that swift and strongest possible action is taken against the perpetrators of this horrendous crime.”

दिल्ली के पांडव नगर इलाक़े में 4-साल की बच्ची के साथ बलात्कार हुआ है। इससे ज़्यादा वीभत्स अपराध क्या हो सकता है?

LG साहब: दिल्ली की महिलाओं और बच्चियों की सुरक्षा आपकी संवैधानिक ज़िम्मेदारी है। इन अपराधियों को तुरंत सज़ा होनी चाहिए, और सख़्त-से-सख़्त सज़ा होनी चाहिए।

एक महिला… pic.twitter.com/N3kwOrYL29

— Atishi (@AtishiAAP) March 24, 2024

Following the news of the incident, a huge crowd of hundreds of people had gathered outside the accused’s residence the following day. The crowd started protesting for police action and soon the demonstration turned violent as protesters damaged vehicles in the vicinity.  The Delhi Police had to deploy additional police personnel to maintain law and order.

DCP East Delhi Apoorva Gupta has debunked rumours, and has claimed contrary to rumours saying that the victim’s health is critical, the child is doing well under recovery. Furthermore, on April 1, DCP Gupta told ANI that the local residents of Pandav Nagar had organised a Mahasabha, a public meeting, with the police officials’ presence and told them of their demands. The police have stated that they will consider the demands and undertake all necessary steps in the case.

Ten days after the incident, the ANI reported the name of the alleged rapist as Appu. However, apart from this no other information about the identity of the teacher and accused has not been disclosed by the media so far. It has been observed that if the accused is of a minority community, then the entrenched commercial (especially television and social) media is noted to publish the name of the accused in its reports immediately after an incident which often leads to social media becoming rife with stereotypes about minority groups as a whole. However, no online campaign has followed the incident against the accused in this case.

According to the latest yearly report by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) released in December 2023 titled Crime in India 2022, crimes reported against women and children have increased exponentially over the years. Around 445,256, cases were registered in 2022 alone for crimes against women, which averaged at about nearly 51 FIRs every hour, as per a report by The Hindu’s Frontline. Meanwhile, cases under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act 2012 have witnessed a huge rise, of about 94 % in the past six years, from 2017 to 2022, according to reports. Uttar Pradesh recorded the highest number of reported offences under the POCSO Act with 8136 out of 63414 total cases.

In relation to crimes against women, Delhi was ranked at number one among 19 metropolitan cities in India with regards to reported rape cases and fifteen percent of the total cases come from Uttar Pradesh, which borders Delhi. On a daily average, the city witnessed three rape cases daily and reported having a total of 1,212 registered sexual assault cases.

Related:

How sexual assault cases are mired in judicial misdemeanours

Unveiling hidden divides: caste, gender and the myth of Indian growth

Telangana: Transgender individual brutally lynched by mob in Nizamabad

Against gender violence: feminists support Gaza ceasefire

US advises American tourists to exercise caution due to cases of sexual assault and terrorism in India

The post Four-year-old raped in New Delhi, locals protest and organise public meeting appeared first on SabrangIndia.

A few school teachers in a secondary school in Jaunpur’s Kasili village, in Uttar Pradesh have been accused of using casteist slurs on students belonging to Dalit community. A local news channel reported on this incident and even interviewed a few students who came forward and narrated their ordeal.

A few girl students came forward and said, “He calls us C****r repeatedly every day. He says that you should clean gutters and that people should spit on you (the community)”

Another girl said that the teacher has said that you (the community) will never improve, and while addressing a class of Grade 2 students, he said that I will beat you up like dogs and chase you away.

One of the parents told the news channel that the class teacher is the one who says things like (referring to their community), you are all dogs. Another woman said that one male teacher apologised while another female teacher called Kusum refused to apologise and instead ran behind us with a stick to chase us away while hurling caste abuses, when we came to complain to the school authorities.

After members from the community gathered around the school to protest against such casteist remarks by the teachers, the police arrived and assured that action will be taken and pacified the group. The Circle Officer, however, told the reporters that no written complaint has been given. The police could have filed a suo moto complaint after being cognizant of the incident.

हिन्दू धर्म के लोगो को सम्मान देने के बजाय
निचपना पऱ उतारू होने
वाले को ही रंगों मे धर्म दीखता है
मानव जात मे धर्म नहीं दीखता ?
मामला
यूपी जौनपुर केराकतhttps://t.co/I07pYX9N5B pic.twitter.com/Bv0O8uSLRr

— Deepika Padukone ρα૨σ∂ყ (@DPKR_parody) December 22, 2022

Related:

Dalit family attacked; women beaten in Rajasthan’s Alwar

Dalit minor allegedly gang-raped multiple times in Karnataka; 4 booked

Zero reported deaths due to manual scavenging: Ramdas Athawale

The post UP school teachers abuse Dalit students daily, no police action yet appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The Madras High Court recently upheld the conviction and life sentence handed down by a Sessions Court to a man who had murdered a class 9 girl by setting her ablaze, after she had rebuffed his advances Bar and Bench reported. [Balamurugan vs The State].

A bench of Justices Nisha Banu and Anand Venkatesh of the Madurai bench of Madras High Court said in its judgment that present day youngsters are short on emotional quotient and are prone to taking extreme steps at the slightest of disturbance or rejection.

Therefore, the Judges also called for reforms in the education system in the country by focusing more on young people’s emotional quotient than their intelligence quotient, to prepare them for all emotional challenges that life throws at them.

The bench was hearing an appeal filed by one Balamurugan, 28 years, challenging a September 2019 judgement of the Madurai Sessions court that had convicted and sentenced him to life imprisonment for killing a 14-year-old girl, a student of standard IX, by setting her ablaze in front of her school after she declined his proposal.

“This is yet another case where a man did not have the maturity to accept the rejection of love proposal made to the deceased and hence, decided to kill her in a gory fashion by pouring petrol on her and setting her on fire. This loathsome act was committed by the appellant with the only motive that the girl who did not reciprocate the love proposal made by him, should not live in this world and she should not have any relationship with anybody else in this world,” the High Court said.

The Judges further held that the prosecution had produced a cogent dying declaration of the victim in which she had named the convict, and the eye witnesses, including her friends with whom she was walking towards an auto rickshaw to go back home.

The Court stated that this was yet another case where a man did not have the maturity to understand and respect a fellow human’s choice.

“The present day youngsters fall too short on emotional quotient and even the slightest of disturbance and rejection, makes them take extreme steps without understanding its consequences. It is high time that our educational system starts focusing more on the emotional quotient than on the intelligence quotient,” the Court said.

The Court also elaborated on how thoughtless the actions of the accused were.

“This case requires this prelude since a man aged about 28 years was going behind a girl, who was studying in 9th standard and was expecting her to react positively and get into a love affair and when it did not fructify, he chose to resort to a monstrous act of pouring petrol on the girl and setting her on fire. He did not realise that this foolish act will bring to an end his connections with the society to a grinding halt and will confine him to the prison for his life,” it opined.

The Court further proceeded to say that the constant increase in such cases of men killing or assaulting women for refusing their proposals of marriage or love showed that men continued to consider women not as fellow human beings entitled to her wishes but merely as “chattel,” whom they want to forcibly keep under their control.

According to the judgement, Balamurugan was an air-conditioning repair mechanic. He had harassed the victim on previous occasions and the girl had narrated the incident to her mother after which they had filed a police complaint against him. Balamurugan claimed before the police that he was in love with the victim.

On the day of the tragic incident, Balamurugan stopped the victim from getting inside an auto rickshaw with her friends to return home after school. He began verbally abusing her and after she reiterated that she was not interested in his proposal, he doused her with petrol and set her ablaze using the lighter.

The victim was rushed to a nearby hospital by the auto rickshaw driver. She succumbed to the burns at the hospital 10 days after the incident.

“In the considered view of this Court, we come to a categoric conclusion that the prosecution has proved the case beyond reasonable doubts with abundant evidence and there is absolutely no ground to interfere with the well considered order and judgment passed by the Court below,” the Court said while rejecting Balamurgan’s criminal appeal.



Advocate BN Raja Mohamed appeared for the appellant. Additional Public Prosecutor R Meenakshi Sundaram appeared for the respondents.

Related:

Whatever happened to ‘zero tolerance’ for child abuse by ‘godmen’ and priests?

What will it take to end child sexual abuse in India?

The post Life sentence of murder convict upheld by Madras High Court, victim class 9 girl who rebuffed his advances appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The Ministry of Women and Child Development told the Lok Sabha on July 30 that between 2017 to 2019, as many as 1,340 cases were registered against caretakers or persons in charge of Juvenile Homes for abuse of children lodged in these Homes.

Smriti Irani, Minister of Women and Child Development responded to the question raised by MP Kamlesh Paswan inquiring about incidents of exploitation/sexual harassment of children in Juvenile Homes and orphanages. The figures were presented from the data collected by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).

The Juvenile Justice (Child and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 has provisions mandating regular monitoring and inspection of Child Care Institutions (CCI) and the prerogative for the same is upon National & State Commissions for Protection of Child Rights.

While the question was about exploitation/sexual harassment in CCIs, the table heading uses an indicative term: Offences by Care Takers/In-charge of Juvenile Homes. Thus, it is unclear what kind of offences these are. However, it is certain that the offences have been committed against children who are under the care and protection of the government.

Also, children in need of care and protection are housed in these CCIs which means they could be children who were found begging, have been exploited by a guardian, are mentally ill or have unfit guardians or have been abandoned, victim of armed conflict and generally found to be vulnerable, as defined under section 2(14) of the Juvenile Justice Act.

The NCRB data says that in 2017, a total of 297 persons were arrested for crimes against children in CCIs, and in that only 13 persons were convicted. In the year 2018, the figure of persons arrested for these crimes increased drastically to 727 and the rate of conviction remained low at 14.

In 2019, which is the latest data available, 499 persons were arrested and the conviction was a bit high at 48 convictions, with states of Rajasthan (21) and Tamil Nadu (24) recording most of these convictions. In this period of 2017-2019, in Gujarat 534 persons were arrested, however in this entire period, only 1 person was convicted. Even Maharashtra has had an abysmal record in these terms.In 2017-2019, a total of 232 person were arrested. However, only 130 were chargesheeted and only 5 were convicted.

The response may be read here:

Related:

Nearly 50,000 atrocity cases registered under SC/ST Act in 2019: Centre
Only one woman judge in Supreme Court, 77 across all High Courts!
Centre claims that nobody died due to manual scavenging reported in the last 5 years!

The post Over 1,500 Children Homes caretakers arrested for child abuse, only 75 convicted appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Minister of Women and Child Development, Smriti Irani, has stated in her answer in the Rajya Sabha that there is no information regarding data on increase in cases of child abuse due to the Covid-19 related lockdown situations.

In addition to this, the Minister said that according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), the Centre also has no data on the increase in child marriage cases across the country due to financial difficulties owing to Covid-19.

The Minister was also posed questions pertaining to the number of complaints registered with the Commission for Protection of Child Rights both at Centre and State level or suo moto taken up and inquiry completed during the last five years.

In her written answer dated July 22, Ms. Irani provided that the total number of complaints received by the Commission from 2016 to 2021 was 50,857. Out of these complaints, the Commission has managed to dispose of only 20,836 cases.

Among all States, the highest number of complaints have been received from Madhya Pradesh at 9,572 followed by Uttar Pradesh at 5,340, Chhattisgarh at 4,685 and Odisha at 4,276. Over the past 5 years, Bihar has also received a high number of complaints at 2,032, along with Gujarat at 1,663, Delhi at 1,730 and Jharkhand at 3,205.

Ladakh has recorded no cases. Lakshadweep has received 3 complaints and three have been disposed of. Kerala recorded the highest number of cases either registered by the Commission or taken up suo motu at a whopping 10,723. This was followed by Delhi at 9,897 cases and Tamil Nadu at 3,046. The Uttar Pradesh State Commission for Protection of Child Rights has provided data from 2018 to 2021, which states that the number of cases registered by the commission suo motu stood at 2,134.

On July 19, the Minister of Education had answered questions about how online education has been disrupted due to the Covid-19 lockdown. Bihar has suffered the worst in this category with 1,43,36,007 children without digital devices to access online education, followed by Jharkhand with 32,52,255 children deprived of an education due to the digital divide, and Karnataka with 31,31,098 students.

The answers may be read here:

Related:

Over 1.4 crore children in Bihar don’t have access to digital devices: Centre in LS
Over 42,000 schools lack drinking water facilities: Centre in RS

The post No data on increase in child abuse cases due to Covid-19 lockdown: Centre appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The Ministry of Women and Child Development displays on its public page, the ‘Model Guidelines under Section 39 of The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012′. The Act, reffered to as POCSO, is a comprehensive law to provide for the “protection of children from the offences of sexual assault, sexual harassment and pornography, while safeguarding the interests of the child at every stage.”

It covers any form of sexual abuse committed by “a person in a position of trust or authority vis-à-vis the child, like a family member, police officer, teacher, or doctor.” A religious teacher, maulvi, priest, or guru is also seen as a teacher, and to the child they have the same level of authority and command similar levels of respect, and often generate the same levels of fear of punishment.

The act also makes it mandatory to report sexual offences committed against children. It is the “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,” it states. Something that religious heads and establishments should always be aware of, and immediately report when one of their own priests, mauvis, babas, gurus etc are suspected of being child abusers.

Some however, groom children in other ways, some others brainwash and scare children to steal from their homes. All of this can lead to other crimes, including sexual assault.

Recently an incident of threatening children and forcing them to get gold from their homes by a madarsa teacher has been reported from Kerala. According to a report in the portal Dailyhunt, the accused was arrested “suspecting that he abused a child.” The man was allegedly “luring” the children under his tutelage with lines such as “let Prophet Muhammad be shown in a dream”. 

The Madrasa teacher identified as Abdul Kareem (50), from Ulikkal, Kannur was arrested on suspicion of child abuse, as well as allegations of stealing money and gold from them. He convinced the children to “donate money and gold if they wanted to go to heaven”. He also allegedly threatened the children by saying that “their parents would be beheaded if they disclosed that the gold had been taken from the house.” The man’s plan was exposed after a complaint was filed about the loss of gold from a child’s house said the news report. 

Kareem reportedly told the child’s family that a “jinn” or spirit had possessed her body.  He added that the missing gold would be returned if the evil spirit was cleared. As news about this incident spread in the area, more information came out that gold had been lost from many houses of other children going to the madrassa. As more people came to the scene with complaints. The role of the madrassa teacher became clear in the ensuing police investigation. According to the police Kareem was teaching in the madrassa allegedly without adequate qualifications.

In another case reported from Kerala, a former madarsa teacher was booked for sexualy molesting his minor daughter. Six other men were also booked for sexually abusing this minor girl. The girl’s father, a former madrassa teacher, was booked for abusing four boys in 2017 reported Express News Service.

The 50-year-old man was arrested on Monday for sexually abusing his 16-year-old daughter repeatedly over the past two years. Local police also booked six youths in their early twenties for sexually abusing the girl and arrested three of them – Riyas, 19, Ijaz, 20, and Mohammed Ali, 20 reported ENS. All seven men have been booked under the POCSO Act. According to the report that quotes P R Manoj, the investigating officer, the girl was impregnated and underwent an illegal abortion two months ago. “The doctor who performed the abortion is also under investigation as he failed to report the crime,” the report quotes a senior police officer adding that the crime came to light after the girl’s maternal uncle (mother’s brother) found something amiss with her behaviour. It is reported that the girl’s relatives stood by her and encouraged her to approach the police against her father and other abusers. The police will reportedly declare the house “unsafe for children”, and the survivor will be provided with counselling and support, stated the report.

According to the Investigating officer, the girl’s father was a repeat sexual offender and was accused of sexually assaulting four minor boys under the Bekal police station limits in 2017. Though four cases were registered against him under the POCSO Act, he received bail as the legal proceedings dragged on in court stated ENS news report. He is a native of Sulliya in the Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka and has another wife and five children there. He came to Kasaragod to teach in the madrasa. After the alleged sexual assault in Bekal, he was sacked, said an officer.

The case is one of many similar cases reported from the state. In January this year, three men held for sexual assault of a minor. According to an Express News Service report, the accused were identified as Palerikkundil Ali alias Eethapazham Ali, 36, and Mattathuveetil Kunju Muhammed alias Manuppa,40, both from Mattummal and Annath Muhamamdali alias Bhava from Athavanad. The culprits were presented before the court and remanded to judicial custody. They were arrested in connection with the POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) case, in which 16 persons allegedly sexually abused a 16-year-old boy in the district. A total of 10 people have been arrested till January. According to the ENS report, Malappuram had registered the highest number of POCSO cases last year.

The rott runs deep across religions when it comes to sexual abuse of minors, and the rights of the survivor. According to an opinion written by well known legal expert and activist Flavia Agnes in The Wire, the application filed by Robin Vadakkumchery, a former Catholic priest belonging to the Syro Malabar tradition before the Kerala high court seeking two months’ parole to marry the rape survivor, has once again put the spotlight on “the rampant sexual exploitation of vulnerable women and girls by the clergy, in Kerala and elsewhere.” 

Agnes noted that the Kerala high court is where the priest’s appeal against his conviction is pending. “The former priest, Robin Vadakkumchery, is now 52. He was convicted by the district and sessions court at Telassery on February 16, 2019, for raping and impregnating a 16-year-old who was studying in Class XI in the parish school, of which he was the manager. He was also the priest of the St. Sebastian’s parish in Kottiyoor, a position of high status and immense power and authority.”

According to Ages, “the influence which he could exert was such that though three members of the District Child Welfare Committee (a priest and two religious sisters) were aware of the crime, they did not report it to the police as they were bound to under the stringent Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act of 2012. On the contrary, they ‘managed the pregnancy and delivery’ in a missionary hospital and on the very next day, shifted the infant to St. Agnelo’s Foundling Home, without preparing the necessary documents and without obtaining the required permissions, so that no paper trail is left behind. The priest was arrested on February 28, 2017, just weeks after the teenager gave birth to the child, amid allegations of church officials attempting to cover up this scandal.”

SabrangIndia had an in depth report on Robin Vadakkumchery’s shocking case of impunity, when he moved court asking for a two-month parole to marry the woman he was convicted of raping. At the time of the abuse, the survivor was 16-years-old and a student of 11th standard. The crime took place in May 2016. The accused in the case was arrested in 2018 as he tried to flee to Canada. He was convicted by a Thalassery POCSO court and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment and also fined Rs 2 lakh. But there was more to the case than sexual exploitation of a minor girl. The survivor delivered a baby in February 2017, who was sent to an orphanage and six people allegedly assisted Vadakkumchery in the case; Thangamma Nelliyani, Wayanad Child Welfare Committee (CWC) Chairman Fr Thomas Joseph Therakam, CWC committee member Sister Betty Jose and Superintendent of an orphanage in Wayanad Sister Ophelia, along with Sister Liss Mariya and Sister Anita. However, the court acquitted them all.

Several Christian women’s groups are extremely agitated over these developments, wrote Flavia Agnes, calling it “an ingenious ploy and a carefully crafted legal strategy devised by astute lawyers to get the priest out of the 20-year jail term which he is currently serving.”

A plea of willingness to marry the survivor made by the accused is nothing new, she stated, noting that “it is a worn-out strategy often used as an escape route in rape trials and appeals. The high premium placed on marriage in our society renders even judges to view this offer sympathetically.”

Meanwhile, two more priests have been defrocked in Kerala following allegations of sexual abuse, in this case the victim was an adult. However it is noteworthy because in this case the Church sacked the two accused and made a public statement. Joseph Poothotatil and Mathew Mullapally were priests at the Tellicherry Archdiocese at Kannur district in Kerala before they were defrocked in the wake of sexual allegations, reported Deccan Herald in June. The archdiocese also tendered an apology to the believers for the wrong doings from the part of the priests, according to the news report. This is perhaps one of the most public punishments issued by a Church against sexual abusers from within the priest community.

The latest case of a child abuser is that of a Pastor from Ahmedabad who has been booked for luring, and sharing indecent photos of a 16 year old girl after luring her to send them to him. The 38-year-old  Pastor identified as Gulab Chandra Masih was booked last week, under provisions of the POCSO Act, for stalking and intimidating the child. The 16-year-old Class 11 student who lives with her parents, was allegedly pressured by the man to undress herself during video calls he would make. The complaint also states that he threatened her, and would also allegedly urge her to convert to Christianity. He was arrested after he shared those sensitive photo’s with the girl’s relative.

The most well known case of sexual abuse of a minor by a religious ‘guru’ is that of Asaram, who in 2018 was found guilty of raping a minor girl, and was sentenced to life in prison. The girl who is originally from Shahjahanpur, was raped at an ashram near Jodhpur in 2013. Asaram was charged under sections of the POCSO Act and the Juvenile Justice Act. Such assaults however seem to have continued. Many as expected, remain unreported.

Related: 

How the Church needs to change the way it addresses Sexual and Gender-based abuse

Cultures of Death: Pope Francis, Apology and Child Abuse

Did UP police sexually torture minors in custody?

Harper Collins moves Delhi HC, seeks permission to publish book on Asaram Bapu 

The post Whatever happened to ‘zero tolerance’ for child abuse by ‘godmen’ and priests? appeared first on SabrangIndia.

 
The recently passed amended POCSO (Protection Of Children from Sexual Offences) Act when discussed in Rajya Sabha, had an amendment which removed the existing clause on “aggravated assault- in the course of communal and sectarian violence” and sought to replace the words ‘communal and sectarian violence’ with just ‘violence’. This deletion was debated and opposed by several MPs including Abir Ranjan Biswas (@ pg 89) ; Jharna Das Baidya (@ pg 114) ; T.K.S. Elangovan (@ pg 125), Sasmit Patra (@ pg 136).
 
Sh. Abir Ranjan Biswas was particularly on point when he debated that, “The clause classifying ‘sexual assault on child in course of sectarian and communal violence’ as aggravated penetrative sexual assault has been substituted in this Bill by ‘violence during natural calamity’. These categories of offences are not comparable. The purpose of this substitution is unclear, especially in the times of communal unrest that the country stands witness to.”

The Bill was duly amended with The Minister for Women and Child conceding and agreeing to retain the term “communal and sectarian” and also add to it “or during any natural calamity or in similar situations”.
 
The POCSO Act was originally passed in 2012 to provide a robust legal framework to protect children (defined as anyone below 18 years of age) from sexual offences. Exploitation and trauma inflicted on women and children during communal violence in India has been witnessed during Partition, during the 1984 Anti-Sikh riots, communal clash in Muzzafarnagar, Gujarat riots of 2002 (heavily documented by the Concerned Citizens Tribunal (Gujarat 2002) and Human Rights Watch with evidence of as many as 250 women and girls being victims of “gross sexual crimes” and unofficial estimates pointing to a much higher number of victims).
 
It is imperative then, that POCSO recognizes the sexual offences inflicted during “communal and sectarian violence” and thankfully the clause has been retained and the amended POCSO Act recently passed by Lok Sabha.
 
The question arises, why are children targeted in high numbers for sexual assault during violent circumstances? Sabrang India spoke to criminologist Rashi Vidyasagar who clarified, “Children are highly susceptible to grooming. Grooming allows someone of authority to manipulate children. By sexually assaulting a child of the other community, one is also claiming authority over the bodies of the most marginalised section of that community. Young children are in ‘need of care and protection’ during circumstances like natural calamities, sectarian and communal violence. Assaults against children during these times are especially sinister. ”
 
Children represent the most vulnerable section of our society. Their consent and rights are refuted everywhere they go, be it forcing them to hug “uncle/aunty” or corporal punishment by teachers. They are told to keep quiet and “obey their elders”. This makes them prone to psychological subjugation having had a vague fear of adults in authority. Being physically smaller and lighter, they are easier to overpower physically as well. Such factors leave them especially exposed to exploitation during circumstances of targeted violence against communities.

Rape of women and children was and is used as an instrument for the subjugation and humiliation of a community. The idea of the “honor” of a community residing in the sexual purity of its female population and claiming “ownership” of “their women” is responsible for the historic use of rape as an inherent war tactic all over the world. International Criminal Tribunals of United Nations have included rapes as war crimes and charged sexual violence during acts of war as “crimes against humanity”. 

Despite the overwhelming number and the nature of sexual crimes inflicted on children during communal violence in India, many of our elected leaders have displayed extreme callousness on various occasions. During a parliamentary debate on Gujarat on April 30, 2002, for example, then Defense Minister George Fernandes stated: “There is nothing new in the mayhem let loose in Gujarat… A pregnant woman’s stomach being slit, a daughter being raped in front of a mother aren’t a new thing.”

Such statements and tactics to normalize violence are a regular feature of our 24 hour news cycle in contemporary India. The “death penalty for aggravated sexual assault” in the new POCSO Act was widely celebrated in the media. What a death penalty means in terms of actual impact of discouraging perpetrators from committing such acts remains to be seen. It could in fact be argued that it could lead to lower reporting and conviction rates. The perceived certainty and moral dilemma of condemning the perpetrator to death could lead to law enforcement, parents, and judiciary being reluctant. In depth research on ground can only show what the impact would be. Penalties may do nothing to deter perpetrators when the actual etiology of patriarchy and impunity afforded on the basis of gender, caste and religion remain intact.

The POCSO Act had defined the stand-alone section on “aggravated sexual assault” to recognise the special coercive circumstances in which the sexual violence is committed. The purpose of retaining the words “communal and sectarian violence” in the clause is also to ensure the sexual crimes deployed during communal attacks, caste atrocities, and riots are documented as such for what they actually are. The narrative cannot and should not erase communal motivations to appease any factions. As a nation, we have a duty to prioritize and protect children.

Kirthi Jayakumar, Founder and CEO of Red Elephant Foundation, told Sabrang India,

“We must make society see that they are stakeholders in a future that starts from investing in the protection of children. This means involving the ecosystem in any theory of change – parents, teachers, care providers and others engaged in the child’s every day activities. Prioritizing comprehensive engagement is in itself a peace building activity. If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a nation to equip that village to provide for the child. Fundamentally, harm and violence create trauma. This can be physical, mental, emotional, and psychological, and this can have both long-term and short-term impacts that need to be addressed for the child to heal in a wholesome fashion. Children can exhibit injuries, they can show behavioral differences such as by acting out or being withdrawn or developing an aversion to particular activities. They may also find themselves being challenged to cope with the emotions that come up after what they faced.”

 
Survivors of child sexual abuse can suffer from a range of physical and mental health issues. For some, recovery takes a lifetime. It is up to lawmakers and citizens alike to protect children from being pawns in hate crimes. The retention of “communal and sectarian violence” clause in POCSO Act is one such measure to hold perpetrators accountable. It is a sad, fearful, and violent world we are raising our children in, and we must advocate for their rights at every avenue. They deserve to live in a world free of strife. They deserve to live in communal harmony. After all, they are the ones who can pay the highest price for the intolerance preached by adults.
 
Related articles

1. When Rape and Violence become the Battleground for Communal Identities
2. And no justice for women: Muzaffarnagar gang-rape survivors are not the only ones losing hope
3. Concerned Citizens Tribunal – Gujarat 2002: An inquiry into the carnage in Gujarat
4. Fight to the finish: From the front lines of the legal battle for Sikh victims of the 1984 massacre
5. Communal Violence in Gujarat, India: Impact of Sexual Violence and Responsibilities of the Health Care System

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More skeletons are tumbling out of the closet as Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) moves forward in investigating the Muzzafarpur shelter home abuse case.
 
The complicity of state social welfare ministers and aides has revealed how dangerous the shelter home structures are in the country. Social audits in India have revealed disturbing truths as only 54 institutions 2,874 children’s homes surveyed could be given positive reviews.
 
A damning report by Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS, Mumbai) in May sent shockwaves around the country when it was found that Bihar shelter homes meant to safeguard and rehabilitate destitute and orphan girls were committing heinous sex crimes.
 
After the survey came out, 41 girls from a Bihar shelter home were medically examined after an FIR was filed. It was found that 34 girls were drugged, tortured and repeatedly raped over several months. After which Brajesh Thakur, who ran the social welfare department sponsored NGO Sewa Sankalp Evam Vikas Samiti, where the girls were tortured, was arrested.
 
“On August 2, the court had taken suo motu cognizance of the incident after it received a letter from a Patna resident highlighting the developments in the shelter home. The bench had also issued notice to the Bihar government and the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development. Following the TISS report publicity, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) was formed to probe the complaints. Amid uproar, the Nitish Kumar government handed over the investigation to CBI,” reported Indian Express
 
Recently, The SC stayed a Patna HC order that allowed the CBI special director to make a fresh SIT for the case. It ordered for the probe to continue by the original team.
 
State welfare ministers complicit
On September 26, CBI arrested Social Welfare Department Assistant Director Rosy Rani and three other associates of main accused Brajesh Thakur.
 
“While being taken on remand on Friday, Rani protested against her arrest and threatened to spill the beans against big people. ‘I was called for interrogation. Now they [CBI] are arresting me. If I open my mouth, many big people will have to run for cover’, she said, in a state of agony while she was presented in a POCSO court in Muzaffarpur,” reported India Today.
 
“Posted at Muzaffarpur from 2015 to 2017, Rani not only allegedly shielded Brajesh Thakur but also recommended extension of his contract with the social welfare department. During her tenure at Muzaffarpur, she is believed to have sent 11 okay inspection reports about the government-sponsored short stay home run by Brajesh Thakur. Many of the victim girls are believed to have apprised Rosy about the ordeal they suffered, but she apparently did nothing. The CBI may charge Rani for abetment of crime,” the report said.
 
Investigations suggest that girls were shifted from the shelter home where they were being abused just months before the TISS came out with the report. It is said that social welfare ministers, aware of the state sanction given for shelter home survey, helped Brajesh Thakur by tipping him off.
 
“The CBI’s status report submitted in the Supreme Court also hints at the alleged complicity of the social welfare department with Thakur. The investigation agency has reasons to believe that Bihar social welfare department or some officials working therein had prior knowledge of certain unsavoury activities happening in the shelter home,” the report said.
 
“Former social welfare minister Manju Verma had to resign on August 8 after call records corroborated that her husband Chandreshwar Verma was in regular touch with Brajesh Thakur. Investigators say the two had as many as 17 conversations of varying duration, between January 17 and the day Thakur was finally arrested on June 3. Earlier, Shiba Singh, the wife of Ravi Kumar Roshan, the district child protection officer who’s been arrested in the case, had alleged that Manju Verma’s husband was a frequent visitor at the girl child shelter at Muzaffarpur,” the report added.
 
Speaking to The Hindu over phone the TISS team leader Mohd Tarique said that “the findings have clearly brought out administrative and procedural gaps affecting the functioning of the institutions…the overall functioning of these institutions found to be far from satisfactory”. However, Raj Kumar, director of the social welfare department told The Hindu, “we’re taking strong measures to fill these gaps at all homes…for the department every shelter home is important”.
 
CBI will be questioning more social welfare ministers in the ongoing investigation.
 
Other shelters equally bad
TISS team had conducted a social audit of 110 shelter and short-stay homes from nine divisions and 35 districts of Bihar after being commissioned by the state.
 
“The 100-page social audit report under the caption “grave concerns — institutions requiring immediate attention” has made explicit details of how girls, boys and adults have been subjected to “dreadful details of physical violence, sexual abuse and mental harassment” at 14 other shelter and short stay homes. “We found plastic bottles with urine in it and upon enquiry, learnt that boys were forced to urinate in bottles once the ward was locked for the night…this pattern was observed across Homes”, said the report at one place in an article by The Hindu.
 
“At Boys Children Home in Motihari run by NGO “Nirdesh”, one of the staff members was reported to be involved in severe physical violence wherein he hit the children with a “thick pipe”. Similarly, at Boy’s children home in Munger run by NGO “Panaah” the children were found living in a “barrack like infrastructure”. “The boys reported being forced to work for the superintendent whose residential quarter was in the same premises…they were made to cook and clean for him and one of the older boys, suffering from hearing and speech impairment who was supposedly a good cook, showed us a three inch long scar across his chest as he was hit by the superintendent when he refused to cook for him”, said the report. At Boy’s children home in Gaya run by the NGO “DORD”, the boys apprised the TISS team how some of the female staff members were forcing them to write “lewd messages on paper and passing them to another female staff member who had joined recently,” the article said quoting the TISS report.
 
“At the Government run Observation Home in Araria district, a boy showed the TISS members “a mark that went across his entire chest and looked like a compression of muscle tissues in the area and swelling around it”. He blamed a Bihar police security guard for hitting him with a metal rod. “Is jagah ka naam sudhar grih se badal kar bigaad grih kar dena chahiye (this place should be called destruction home instead of correction home), said the boys to the social audit team of TISS. The report further said that a short-stay home in Patna run by “IKARD” was being managed in a “severely custodial and violent manner that unable to cope with the violent atmosphere one girl had committed suicide about a year ago while another had lost her mental balance from the trauma she suffered there”. The girls reported that they got no clothes, medicines, toiletries etc,” the report said.
 
“In the short-stay home in Motihari run by the NGO “Sakhi”, the girls were found suffering from “mental illness”. The Home looked more like a Hindu temple rather than a short-stay home with images of God and Goddesses everywhere, said the report. ‘A Muslim girl informed us that the counselor had beaten her up for practice her faith and had torn her Quran into pieces. She was frequently beaten and ridiculed for praying according to her faith,’ said the social audit report. No sanitary pads were provided to them, it said further. At the short-stay home in Kaimur district run by “Gram Swaraj Sewa Sansthan”, the guard was reported to be “sexually abusive”. The women / girls reported that he often passed lewd comments and attempted to touch their private parts,” said the report.
 
“Similar disturbing instances and patterns of physical violence and sexual abuse were also revealed by the residents of Sewa Kutir at Muzaffarpur run by the NGO “Om Sai Foundation”. “People had bruises and broken bones..they reported being sexually assaulted by the caretakers and receiving severe beatings if they protested”, said the report. “There were no ceiling fans or lights in the rooms…and the residents had no access to drinking water…they were forced to drink from the toilets”, the report said further.
 
National survey’s disturbing findings
On May 5, The Supreme Court ordered a nationwide audit of shelter homes when the TISS report came out with its findings. The National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) is carrying out an audit of childcare institutions and other bodies such as children homes, open shelters, observation homes, special homes, places of safety, specialised adoption agencies and fit facilities under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, and Model Rules.
 
In its preliminary report, NCPCR found that only 54 out of 2,874 children’s homes surveyed in India could be given positive reviews. 

“Out of 185 shelter homes audited across the country, only 19 had “all the records of a child that they are supposed to maintain.” Of the 203 special adoption agencies, only eight deserved positive reviews. Similarly, only 16% of the 172 observation homes audited till July 31, 2018, had all the required records of the children, like case histories and who are residing there. Out of 80 special homes/place of safety only 13% have the complete set of record,” The Hindu reported on the findings.
 
The court said that if authorities had done their jobs, incidents like Muzaffarpur shelter home abuse would not have happened. “It is very clear from this (NCPCR) report that nobody is interested. The court is helpless. If we do something, then it will be said that it is judicial activism,” SC Justice Lokur said.
 
The NCPCR audit is scheduled to be concluded by October 2018.
 
Frightening status of other state shelter homes
Six people were arrested last Friday in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh when a shelter home inmate complained that she was raped and made to undergo an abortion by the staff.
 
The director of the shelter home and his wife were among those arrested. The 24-year-old survivor also said that the staff burned the fetus to destroy evidence.
 
Another 70-year-old retired army jawan and director of a shelter home for speech and hearing impaired was arrested for alleged rape, sodomy and forced labour in Bhopal among other people.
 
A month ago, another director of a shelter home for speech and hearing impaired in Bhopal was arrested after allegations of rape. Similar incidents have also been noticed in shelter homes in Gwalior, MP.
 
NCPCR sent a four-member team to Deoria, Uttar Pradesh’s in August where it found that 26 girls were subjected to physical and sexual abuse at an illegally run shelter home and were rescued. Some 18 girls are still missing and the shelter home has been sealed.
 
Another man was arrested in Jharkhand for forcibly converting up to 30 children to Christianity and holding them hostage in an illegal shelter home in Ludhiana. “The middleman used to get tribal children to the shelter home in Ludhiana after luring their parents with the promise of their proper education and upbringing,” said a report. 20 of the 30 ‘missing’ children were found back with their families after an investigation.
 
There were reports of sexual abuse is Chennai’s shelter homes too when 26 children were sent for medical examination for sexual abuse when four of them complained to judicial magistrates attending an event at their shelter home.
 
“Local authorities here discovered rampant sexual abuse at a private shelter for children. The shocking matter came to light after four girls, inmates of the care home and students of a government school were attending a legal awareness drive at their school where two judicial magistrates were the chief guest. Magistrates Anitha Ananth and B Soundarya launched an inquiry into the matter. Investigating officers were shocked to discover that a lot more than four inmates had been sexually assaulted by trustee C Jacob, Warden Babu Samuel, and maintenance staff members R Baskar and R Muthu,” a report said.
 
The situation is equally bad in Maharashtra where shelter homes in Mumbai, Thane, Aurangabad and more are notorious for sexual and physical abuse of children and no proper audit has been conducted since 2011.
 
It took four years to award life imprisonment to a peon of a Mankhurd shelter home in Maharashtra after he had raped a 12-year-old mentally challenged girl in 2014. 

“In Mumbai, a social audit has not been conducted for at least last three years. “I don’t remember when the last audit happened,” a senior WCD department official said. In 2010, one home in Thane and in 2011, two homes in Panvel and Aurangabad were shut down after cases of sexual abuse emerged. But Mumbai shelter homes not only witnessed threats of sexual abuse to both boys and girls, they were also reeling under the burden of huge staff crunch, lack of trained employees, poor education support and physical abuse of children,” said a report by The Indian Express.
 
“Following the death of five mentally challenged children due to malnourishment at a Thane home, in 2011 the Bombay High Court took suo motu cognizance and appointed a five-member Maharashtra State Co-ordination Committee for Child Protection to submit a report on condition of shelter homes for mentally deficient children (MDC). In its report, TISS found that these homes were grounds for sexual abuse and neglect, and no regular inspections were being conducted there. “It is clear that the grant in aid provided to the NGOs does not reach the children for whom it is meant. The children are being forced to live like animals, not given proper food and medical aid, education, and often subjected to physical and sexual exploitation,” the report said.
 
“Maharashtra has 23 MDC homes. Following the TISS survey, 35 children were rescued from Thane and Panvel homes, where they had been subjected to sexual abuse. One home in New Panvel — where 19 girls were sexually abused — did not provide undergarments, educational or vocational training to children. On top of that, the children used to be physically and sexually abused,” it reported.
 
“Nothing much has changed since that report came out seven years ago,” said Asha Bajpai, chairperson of committee that submitted the report to Bombay High Court in 2011 in the report.
 
“From 2013 till 2016 I have written several letters to Bihar and UP’s chief secretary about children and minor girls being transported from there to Mumbai for sex trade. We have requested them so many times to coordinate, but got no response,” said A N Tripathi, former secretary of Maharashtra State Commission for Protection of Child Rights in the report.
 
Sexual abuse is rampant in shelter homes across the country. With so many minor girls pushed into the sex trade, boys abused and displaced, are these homes for rehabilitation or destruction? Are shelter homes a business model meant to be exploited, government aid to be misused for personal gains? What do shelter homes have to gain from mistreating its inmates, selling them, abusing them, and not using govt funds meant for children? The truth of shelter homes in India confirms India’s global rank when it comes safety of women and children.

Related articles:
Muzafarpur Shame Exposes Governments dependence on NGOs for Welfare Responsibilities
Shelter homes abuse: SC ends ban on reporting from Bihar on the subject

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“With shame and repentance,” went the Pope’s grave words, “we acknowledge as an ecclesial community that we were not where we should have been, that we did not act in a timely manner, realizing the magnitude and the gravity of the damage done to so many lives.”

What is left hanging in the air is any system of defined accountability, one characterised by an ancient institution mothballed by secrecy and obfuscation.  In the pointed words of Irish abuse survivor Marie Collins, “Statements from the Vatican or Pope should stop telling us how terrible abuse is, and how all must be held accountable.”

The Pope had been given a prompting this month, a nasty reminder he acknowledged in his note.  “Even though it can be said that most of these cases belong to the past, nonetheless as time goes on we have come to know the pain of the many of the victims.”  The Pennsylvania Supreme Court had made a near 900 page grand jury report investigating clerical sex abuse of minors public, a digging enterprise spearheaded by the Pennsylvania state Attorney General Josh Shapiro.  The grizzly bounty came to 301 accused priests, with some 1,000 victims throughout the state, and even then, it only covered six of the eight dioceses in the state.

The details read like chillingly lurid pornography: a priest in the Diocese of Erie who “fondled boys and told them he was giving them a ‘cancer check’”; a priest in the Diocese of Allentown who impregnated a 17-year-old and “forged another pastor’s signature on a marriage certificate”.  What also accompanied such acts of molestation was the divine remit: victims were assured that their sexual provision was part of a broader Godly purpose.

The exploits of some of the accused resemble catalogues of brutal overachievement.  Rev. Edward R. Graff, who served in the diocese of Allentown for 35 years, could add scores of victims to his repertoire. Much of his conduct was executed on the premise that he was “an instrument of god”.

After the abuse comes the vast apparatus, the doctrinally directed cover-ups that warn of continuing offending behaviour while still keeping matters bolted and in-house.  The report notes the point.  “What we can say, though, despite some institutional reform, individual leaders of the church have largely escaped public accountability.  Priests were raping little boys and girls, and the men of God who were responsible for them not only did nothing; they hid it all.  For decades.”  Within the church itself, church officials received protection and succour. “Monsignors, auxiliary bishops, bishops, archbishops, cardinals have mostly been protected; many, including some named in this report, have been promoted.”

Matters have been particularly heady in the field of child abuse accusation this US summer.  Cardinal Theodore McCarrick resigned his cardinalship after accusations of abuse from adult seminarians and children.  On the other side of the planet, one of the Vatican’s highest ranking officials, Australia’s Cardinal George Pell, is busy battling charges of historical sex abuse.

Resistance to prodding from the secular world remains trenchant in some branches of the Church. In Australia, despite the passage of legislation breaching the sacred seal of the confession, priests have openly stated that they would sooner go to prison than reveal the contents of a penitent’s confession, even if it discloses instances of child abuse.  Church business remains resistant, defiantly so.

To that end, the shaking measures of legal action may be one of few mechanisms to ensure accountability.  Criminal prosecutions have tended to rarely succeed; issues of evidence and the passage of time often condemn them.  Civil lawsuits, as Timothy D. Lytton of Georgia State University argues, might have more prospects of success.  This, however, will face bars imposed by the statute of limitations. “Unless lawmakers across the country pass reforms to extend or suspend the statute of limitations in their states, I believe that the church will never provide a full accounting of the scandal.”

The language of Pope Francis can be misconstrued as healing and resolving.  It does neither.  The Church sprawls and continues to exist with its own rationales, its basis of functioning. It was the world’s first operational corporation, its crimes and infractions as much to do with that logic than anything else.  Until its approach to the powerful clerical class is reformed, the abuses will continue in the shadow of misused divinity.

Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge.  He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne.  Email: bkampmark@gmail.com

Courtesy: https://countercurrents.org
 

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Chattisgarh child rights training, warm-up exercise. Photo: Prita Jha.

It is only in the last decade or so that the Indian state has acknowledged that child sexual abuse is an issue which requires government intervention. In 2007, a landmark survey (the first and last of its kind) revealed rampant physical and sexual abuse across 13 states. It interviewed 12,447 children; 53% had suffered some kind of sexual violence and around one in five said they had suffered serious sexual assault.

The most worrying statistic was that 70% of children had not disclosed the abuse to anyone, confused about what to say, afraid of their abuser, or afraid that they would not be supported but blamed. Most children said they knew their abuser who was often a neighbour, relative or friend. When they did disclose abuse, many were told to keep quiet, or were blamed for the abuse. Too many caregivers took no action, even denying the disclosure of abuse.

Active engagement with children, parents, teachers and schools is needed to counter such deafening silence, and create an environment that enables children to speak out. I lead an organisation called Peace and Equality Cell (PEC) which has worked with more than 150 survivors of child sexual abuse in the last four years. We have observed that poverty adds an additional layer of vulnerability when parents are too poor to afford suitable childcare and the child is assaulted whilst both parents are out working.

‘poverty adds an additional layer of vulnerability when parents are too poor to afford suitable childcare’

The story of one mother and five-year old daughter, who live in an urban slum in Ahmedabad, reflects some of the challenges of these cases. Savitri routinely left Joshila with other children in an area where a loose arrangement of neighbours and parents were supposed to note if something went amiss. One day, Joshila’s 16-year-old cousin Mohan took her to his home, which was familiar to her. He experimented on her, carrying out anal and vaginal rape.

The assault led to a raging battle between Savitri (who wanted Mohan prosecuted for “spoiling her daughter’s life”) and Joshila’s paternal grandmother, who was also Mohan’s maternal grandmother, Ammaji (who wanted the whole thing hushed up to save the family’s honour and, of course, to save her grandson from criminal proceedings).

Where family and community ties are very strong, sexual assault may or may not be reported to the police depending on a number of factors, the most important of these being the relative power of the perpetrator’s family and community versus that of the survivor.

The 2012 Protection of Children against Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) sought to take into account some of these ground realities to ensure that perpetrators were brought to justice. Among other things it requires ‘child-friendly’ procedures and infrastructure to ensure that children are not re-victimised and re-traumatised whilst navigating the criminal justice system.

But there is a huge gap between the law and its implementation.

‘there is a huge gap between the law and its implementation’

POCSO provides for a trained child welfare officer to act in the child’s ‘best interest’. It says children should not have to travel to police stations but that their statements should be taken by police officers at their home or at another location where the child feels comfortable, in the presence of trusted adults.

Police must ensure there is no face-to-face confrontation between the child and the alleged perpetrator and that the child’s identity is kept confidential at all times unless directed otherwise by the court. Police are supposed to provide the survivor with information about counselling, legal aid and compensation. They must ensure that medical examinations happen as soon as possible, and within 24 hours of being informed of abuse.

Although police have gradually become aware of POCSO and the number of individuals charged with offences has increased, particularly in Gujarat, the transformation of police stations to into child-friendly places has a long way to go. I have yet to see a station furnished, for example, with toys or magazines.

There is also a scarcity of private space in police stations. One 16-year-old survivor told me she was traumatised when she had to give her statement to a male police officer in a room where three other male police officers were present even though they were busy with other duties. Her parents were not allowed to sit with her to give her the moral support she needed.

The author Prita Jha meeting with parents about trial process in a child sexual abuse case. Photo: Nazir Khan Pathan.

Recently, I was present at a police station where PEC was assisting two survivors in a POSCO case. The two 12 and 15 year old girls were at the station for more than six hours, exhausted, hungry and thirsty. The were not offered a meal until around midnight. The recording of the older girl’s statement was interrupted several times and she was even moved from one room to another as her statement was being taken.  

Shockingly, police officers allowed a face-to-face confrontation between the survivors and the alleged perpetrator, saying this was necessary to assess whether the girls were telling the truth. The whole concept of preventing secondary trauma and re-victimisation of children has not really sunk into police psyche.

‘the whole concept of preventing secondary trauma and re-victimisation of children has not really sunk into police psyche’

In Gujarat, most courts have common waiting areas and toilets which enhance the risk of confrontation between the accused, the survivor, and their families. This contravenes the 2012 law which says the child should not be exposed to the accused whilst testifying.

It also enables the accused’s supporters to attempt an illegal settlement of the case, a common practice known as samadhan or ‘compromise’. In these cases, witnesses may turn hostile, denying original testimonies of abuse. As their evidence is usually essential to prosecutions, the perpetrator goes scot-free.

Two years ago, in one village, the sexual assault of a girl with a learning disability was hushed up as the boy came from a powerful family. It was only after a PEC volunteer spoke to the village sarpanch (head) – and reminded him that the new law makes reporting of sexual offences mandatory, and non-reporting an imprisonable offence – that he reported it.

At this point, the girl’s mother Leelaben was offered money by the accused’ family to settle the case. PEC worked hard to convince her not to accept it (she was concerned about her daughter’s marriage prospects, and felt that the money would help her arrange a marriage). In this case, timely disbursement of compensation via the courts played a key role in preventing an illegal settlement.

PEC volunteers talking about children’s rights and good touching and bad touching. Photo: Ketan Baria.

POCSO has had the unintended consequence of criminalising consensual, adolescent sexual activity. Any sexual activity of children under 18 years is caught within the remit of this law, and approximately one third of POCSO cases are in this consensual category involving adolescent sexuality rather than child sexual abuse.

One proposal to address this is to lower the age of consent from 18 to 16. But as girls between 15-18 are most at risk of abuse, this could make things worse; already, proving consent in a trial is a vexed issue.  

There have also been cases of parents of adolescent girls who disapprove of their romantic relationships using POSCO against their boyfriends. They can register a kidnapping case and make a claim of penetrative sexual assault which carries a mandatory minimum seven-year sentence. The girl may then be forced into marriage with a man considered suitable by the family.

Despite laws against child marriage, about 50% of Indian women between 20-24 years old were married before they turned 18. Marital rape is not criminal in India if the bride is 15 or older. This is presently being challenged by a NGO called Independent Thought, in the Supreme Court as being unconstitutional and against the state’s child policy.

What explains the gap between POSCO on paper and in practice? An entrenched culture of silence and victim blaming leads to low levels of disclosure. When disclosure happens, families struggle with shame and dishonour. Too often, public institutions fail to provide safe, supportive and enabling environments that survivors need to take on an arduous battle for justice.

Radical social transformation combined with a deep understanding of the child-friendly ethos of POCSO (as opposed to the adversarial norms of the Indian criminal justice system) has to be embedded within the psyche of the police, lawyers and judges. Courts should also be given discretion, and guidelines, at the sentencing stage to take into account factors such as age differences, inequalities between the victim and the perpetrator, the seriousness of the offence and its impact on the survivor.

Prita Jha is a legal activist, researcher and trainer working with issues of justice for survivors of communal, gender and sexual violence.  She is the co-editor of a book, On Their Watch: Mass Violence and State Apathy in India, Examining the Record, with Surabhi Chopra.  She has also taught courses on Gender and Criminal justice Administration at Nirma University, Gujarat.

Courtesy:  Open Democracy
 

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