SSC Selection Post - Matriculation Level - 20 June 2024 - Shift 1

Read the given passage and answer the questions that follow.
On 14 November 2022, the POCSO Act completed a decade of being on the statute books in
India. When enacted, it marked the culmination of years of campaigning for a dedicated
domestic legislation to deal with sexual offenses against children. Ten years is a reasonable
period of time to look back and reflect on how far it has been able to meet the objectives it set
out to achieve.
Objectives of the law: The need for a dedicated law to deal with sexual offenses against
children emanated from a realisation that, by failing to account for the specific needs of child
victims, the criminal justice system’s response to such cases lacked the sensitivity required.
To address this concern, the POCSO Act in addition to providing punishment for sexual
offenses against children, provided certain safeguards to make children’s interaction with the
criminal justice system ‘child-friendly’. For instance, the child victim should not see the
accused at the time of testifying and that trial be held in camera. The evidence of a child shall
be recorded within a period of 30 days. The trial court completes the trial, as far as possible,
within a period of one year from the date of cognisance. The POCSO rules, 2020 also made a
provision for appointment of support persons for victims to render assistance.
Hurdles in implementation: Implementing a new law in a vast country like India is not an easy
task. Though the child protection ecosystem is complex and involves the interplay of multiple
actors, when it comes to courts, the delay in disposal of POCSO cases presents one of the
biggest challenges in meeting the Act’s objectives. There is a huge variation in the average
case length across states. For instance, Chandigarh takes about six months (on average) to
dispose of a case, Himachal Pradesh takes about two years 10 months. Slow disposals not
only impact the accused who might be incarcerated during the duration of the trial but also
negatively impact the child victim who might be retraumatised.
Lessons learnt: Though the Act’s implementation is far from perfect, the fact remains that the
criminal justice system is more sensitive towards child victims today than it was a decade
ago. Since some states are clearly performing better than others, certain best practices can
be adopted by other states.
Going forward, the government and the judiciary need to assess the gaps in implementation
and strengthen the capacity of the various actors to meet the objectives of the Act.