Expanding The Scope Of POCSO

Context: Reforming the POCSO Act is necessary to account for the reporting of historical child sexual abuse.

Case of Purnima Govindarajulu

• Unsuccessfully tried to register a complaint against her abuser after a delay of more than 40 years.
• Reached out through an online campaign to raise awareness

Reasons for delayed reporting: Historical child sexual abuse refers to incidents that are reported late

• Inability of the child to recognise the crime: and comprehend the gravity of what has happened.
• Intra-familial abuse: It is difficult for a child to report offence or offender at the earliest point in time.
• Accommodation syndrome: The child keeps the abuse a secret because of fear that no one will believe abuse, leading to accommodative behaviour.
• Delays in reporting may be due to factors such as threats from the perpetrator, fear of public humiliation, and absence of a trustworthy confidant.

The implication of delayed reporting:

• Delayed reporting runs counter to the established principle of criminal law: that every act of crime must be reported at the earliest.
• Any delay in filing the complaint dilutes the efficacy of the prosecution’s case.
• Lack of evidence to advance prosecution, as there would be less than 5% chance for gathering direct physical and medical evidence.

Institutional hurdles in accepting Historical Child Abuse:

• Legal barriers in reporting child sexual offences: Laws in India treat child sexual abuse lightly, which happened before the POCSO, 2012.
  • The Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) provisions prohibit judicial magistrates from taking cognisance of cases beyond a specific period.
  • E.g. Indian Penal Code Section 376 (child sexual abuse not amounting to rape) would be classified under lesser offence like Section 354 (outraging modesty of a woman), which has a limitation of 3 years for reporting.
  • While the Union Ministry of Law and Justice has clarified that no time limit shall be applied in the cases of POCSO, there is no respite for the abuses that occurred before 2012.
• Lack of procedural guidance: To prosecute historical cases of child sexual abuse.

Way forward: Take into account historical child abuses: The Union government must frame guidelines to direct effective and purposeful prosecution in cases that are not covered by the POCSO.

• E.g. the U.K. issued detailed Guidelines on Prosecuting Cases of Child Sexual Abuse under Sexual Offences Act of 2003, provides guidelines for prosecution of historical case.