Historical Reporting of Child Sexual Abuse under POCSO Act

Synopsis – There is an urgent need to reform POSCO Act to enable historical reporting of child sexual abuse.

 Introduction-

• The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO), 2012 enacted by the government to deal with child sexual abuse cases.
• The law made a significant contribution in dealing with the issues of child sexual abuse. It also protects children from offences like sexual assault, sexual harassment, and pornography.
• But the POSCO Act is unable to deal with historical cases of child abuse faced by a person.

What is historical child sexual abuse?

The term used to describe the cases of child sexual abuse. They are cases that are reported or come into light very late after the actual incident. This could mean months, years, or decades ago.

The delay in reporting child sexual abuse may be due to the following factors-

• Threats from the perpetrator
• Fear of public humiliation
• Absence of trustworthy confidant
• Intra-familial abuse – Sometimes, it is difficult for the child to report the offense or offender at the earliest.
• The accommodation syndrome – Where the child does not reveal the abuse for fear that no one would believe it, which leads to accommodative behavior.

Why reporting historical child sexual abuse is difficult?  

POCSO Act was enacted in 2012. Now if a person wants to file a report of historical child sexual abuse that took place before 2012, i.e. before the POCSO act, it would be challenging.

1. Firstly, Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) does not recognize, cases involving child sexual abuse, as rape.
   • Thus the case will be filed under the lesser offense. It is of outraging the modesty of a woman (Section 354 of the IPC).
2. Secondly, under Section 354 of the IPC, CrPC bars any reporting of an offense, after more than three years of the date of the incident.

What are the drawbacks of delayed reporting of child sexual abuse?

• Lack of evidence to advance prosecution – According to data, there would be less than 5% chance for gathering direct physical and medical evidence in delayed reporting child sexual abuse cases.
• Lack of procedural guidance – In India, there no detailed procedural guidelines on prosecuting historical cases.

Way forward-

• Firstly, child sexual abuse cannot and must not be viewed in the same manner as other criminal offenses.
• Secondly, India must revise its legal and procedural methods. It is to deal with historical child sexual abuse cases, in accordance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
• Thirdly, there is a need to frame guidelines to direct effective and purposeful prosecution in cases that POCSO does not cover.

Source- The Hindu