HYDERABAD: Recently, a member of the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has said that there is a need for amendment to the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act. The argument put forward by Priyank Kanoongo, NCPCR member (RTE and education), is that a number of young boys are being booked under the POCSO Act, which came into force in 2012, even if they are in a consensual relationship with girls younger than they.
While Kanoongo has not made any specific recommendations, advocates working with juveniles and children feel that there is more to do than amending the Act. Like in the case of a 12-year-old orphan boy who was charged under the POCSO Act for raping a girl younger than his age, and convicted and sent for reformation.
However, Ettavoni Manjusha, a legal-aid panel advocate,who partially dealt with the case, says that the procedure of convicting the child raises several questions. “It was alleged that there was intercourse and he was sent for reform. Is a child as young as him, capable of doing that kind of thing? The victim’s version is not entirely reliable,” says the advocate. Their past experiences, their upbringing and the atmosphere in which they are investigated come into the picture, and it is time-taking,” she adds.
In another case, a child from Varanasi, staying in an orphanage, was allegedly raped by other children in the same place. “The ward boy in the dispensary used to watch porn and also show it to other children.
They became experimental and performed certain acts on this child, who eventually died. There is an urgent need to strengthen awareness and the reformation programmes to prevent such things,” Manjusha says. “It could be a friendly, romantic relationship.
But the girl’s parents take this into cognizance and book the boy under POCSO Act. We have provisions for safety of victims but, most often, the boys have to suffer. The victim might turn around and the case gets disposed of but enough damage is done to the boy by then,” Mukthida Pappula, principal magistrate, Juvenile Justice Board, Hyderabad says.
What experts say
Boys are booked even in instances of harmless, consensual and romantic relationship, they say
