Sexual abuse of minors: sensitise stak eholders
The Karnataka High Court has directed the Bengaluru city police commissioner to appoint a new officer to investigate further and submit a report within 10 weeks in a case of alleged sexual abuse of a four-year-old girl by her father. The HC rapped the police for its shoddy and hurried investigation. But this is not the first time Justice M Nagaprasanna has come down heavily on the stakeholders in POCSO cases, including the police. Last month, he dismissed a gynaecologist’s petition to quash a POCSO case registered against him for failure to report an incident of alleged sexual assault on a minor.
Sexual crimes against children largely go unreported, especially if they are intra-familial. Besides delays in reporting the incidents, families suppress these primarily for societal reasons. Very often in a divorce case, the wife may state domestic violence as the primary reason for seeking a divorce, and though she may be witness to her child also being abused, she wouldn’t bring it on record, to shield her child from entering the criminal justice system at a vulnerable age. When it comes to a child, it’s a tough decision between keeping the child safe from the offending parent/family member and registering a police complaint to bring the perpetrator to justice.
The POCSO Act mandates a high level of sensitivity by the police, advocates and the court in handling the investigation, prosecution and trial, keeping in mind “the best interest of the child”, said Dr S T Ramesh, former director general of police, Karnataka, and trustee, Enfold India, a Bengaluru-based non-profit that addresses gender-based violence and supports survivors of child sexual abuse. Police have been sensitised and trained to handle and investigate POCSO cases, but their sensitivity remains “abysmal”, charged Vasudeva Sharma, the executive director of Child Rights Trust. However, it is not only the police that must be held accountable for botched-up investigations in heinous cases against children. A delay in reporting kills evidence. No law can save a child from being abused by an offending parent/family member or family friend, but in order to help the child get justice, society should step forward to quickly report the incident and unconditionally support the child in the process. It is a known fact that often, an abused child/adolescent may end up becoming a predator. Crime against children is the worst-known crime in human history and reality.