POCSO Act
The Bombay High Court recently said that the
POCSO Act was enacted not to punish minors in a consensual relationship and to
brand them as criminals.
About
the POCSO Act -
Ø The Protection of Children from Sexual
Offences Act is a comprehensive act that came into force in November 2012.
Ø The Ministry of Women and Child Development
introduced the act.
Ø Commonly known as POCSO Act, it deals with
offences related to children.
Ø This act addresses heinous crimes and
protects a child from sexual assault, sexual harassment and pornography.
Ø The POCSO Act, 2012 lays down the punishment
for exposing children to any kind of sexual offence.
Ø The enactment of this act increased the scope
of reporting sexual crimes against children.
What
was the need of this act?
Ø The act was required as the Indian Penal Code
was inadequate to address Sexual Assault, Sexual Harassment, Pornography and
Sexual Violence against boys and a child.
Ø The act is gender-neutral and recognises both
girls and a boy as a victim of sexual violence.
Ø The POCSO was also required as the procedure
for the crime reported under IPC is more rigid and also not child friendly.
Ø Also, India is a signatory of the United
Nations Convention on Rights of Children (UNCRC).
Ø The POCSO Act, 2012 was enacted to ensure
child-friendly procedure for the filing of the report and fulfils the
requirement of Article 15(3) of the Constitution of India. Clause 3 of Article
15 of the Constitution gives powers to the legislature to create special
provisions for women and children.
Features
of POCSO Act -
Ø The Act defines the various types of
offences, touch-based, non-touch, penetrative, pornographic crimes etc., in
detail and doesn't leave any kind of offence.
Ø The act also defines the person under the age
of 18 as a child.
Ø The act also has a feature to give
compensation to the victim.
Ø Only the POCSO Court has the jurisdiction to
deal with the matter related to the act.
Ø The INNOCENT TILL PROVEN GUILTY principle
does not apply in the matter related to the POCSO Act, 2012. Once a complaint
gets filed in this case, it gets presumed that the intention was to commit a
sexual act.
Ø If a child goes through abuse at home, he will
get relocated by the Child Welfare Commission for care and protection.