{"id":215384,"date":"2022-11-22T18:56:17","date_gmt":"2022-11-22T13:26:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=215384"},"modified":"2022-11-22T18:56:17","modified_gmt":"2022-11-22T13:26:17","slug":"judging-a-decade-of-pocso","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/judging-a-decade-of-pocso\/","title":{"rendered":"Judging A Decade Of POCSO"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source: <\/b>The post is based on the article\u00a0\u201cJudging A Decade Of POCSO\u201d <\/b>published in The Times of India <\/b>on 22nd November 2022.<\/b><\/p>\n

Syllabus:\u00a0<\/strong>GS-2 – Mechanisms, laws, institutions and Bodies constituted for the protection and betterment of these vulnerable sections.<\/p>\n

Relevance:\u00a0<\/strong>About the implementation of the POCSO Act.<\/p>\n

News<\/strong>: On November 14, 2022, the POCSO Act completed a decade of being on the statute books in India. It is now time to analyse how the Act meets the objectives it set out to achieve.<\/p>\n

What is the POCSO Act?<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
Read here: POCSO Act<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
What are the hurdles in the implementation of POCSO Act?<\/h5>\n

The Act has encountered hurdles at all stages of its implementation. This is because,<\/p>\n

On the government side<\/strong>, there is a)<\/strong> A slow pace to designate Special Courts. b)<\/strong> A delay in investigation and filing of chargesheets, c)<\/strong> A non-appointment of support persons for child victims.<\/p>\n

From the judicial angle<\/strong>, there is a delay in the disposal of POCSO cases<\/strong> presents one of the biggest challenges in meeting the Act\u2019s objectives.<\/p>\n

For instance, a) <\/strong>For cases ending in acquittal<\/strong>, while Chandigarh takes about six months (on average) to dispose of a case, Himachal Pradesh takes about two years and 10 months, b)<\/strong>\u00a0For cases ending in conviction, the average case length ranges from about 10 months in Chandigarh to over three years and nine months in Delhi.<\/p>\n

What are the potential impacts of the hurdles on the implementation of the POCSO Act?<\/h5>\n

1) Negatively impact the child victim who might be re-traumatised by being forced to relive the details of an incident of sexual violence years later, 2)<\/strong> Slow disposals may also have a bearing on the outcome of the trial. As more time passes, witnesses might start to forget important details pertaining to the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Read more: The POCSO Act and associated issues<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
What are the positive aspects in the implementation of the POSCO Act?<\/h5>\n

a)<\/strong> The criminal justice system is more sensitive towards child victims today than it was a decade ago, b)<\/strong> Varying performance of states in the time they take to dispose of POCSO cases goes on to show that the states lagging behind might catch up in some time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Read more: Historical Reporting of Child Sexual Abuse under POCSO Act<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
What should be done to improve the implementation of the POCSO Act?<\/h5>\n

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.<\/p>\n

-Policy interventions<\/strong> to improve the functioning of the Act must be tailored to meet the specific capacity constraints faced by different states and a one-size-fits-all approach is best avoided.<\/p>\n

-The better-performing states can help to evolve certain best practices<\/strong> that can be adopted by other states.<\/p>\n

-Strong data systems and digital platforms<\/strong> can help transfer learning across states and contextualise the best practices to the local courts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: The post is based on the article\u00a0\u201cJudging A Decade Of POCSO\u201d published in The Times of India on 22nd November 2022. Syllabus:\u00a0GS-2 – Mechanisms, laws, institutions and Bodies constituted for the protection and betterment of these vulnerable sections. Relevance:\u00a0About the implementation of the POCSO Act. News: On November 14, 2022, the POCSO Act completed… Continue reading Judging A Decade Of POCSO<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10311,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[212,10496],"class_list":["post-215384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-times-of-india","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":1700778087,"cached_date":1704826192},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10311"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215384\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}