Tuesday, 12 December 2023 | PNS | DEHRADUN
It will take about 16 years for Uttarakhand to clear the pending cases under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, according to a research paper released by the India Child Protection Fund (ICPF). The report is based on data from the Ministry of Law and Justice, the Ministry of Women and Child Development and National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).
According to ICPF’s research paper titled Justice Awaits: An Analysis of the Efficacy of ‘Justice Delivery Mechanisms in Cases of Child Sexual Abuse in India’, the country has 2,43,237 POCSO cases pending in its Fast Track Special Courts (FTSCs) as on January 31, 2023. Even if no new case is added to this long list, the country will need at least nine years to clear this backlog, as per the report. Uttarakhand will take about 16 years to clear such pending cases. In 2022, the number of cases that resulted in conviction were a mere three per cent nationally.
The research paper further states that given the present scenario, while Arunachal Pradesh would take 30 years to complete the trials of cases pending under POCSO Act as of January 2023, Delhi will take 27 years, Bihar 26, West Bengal 25 and Meghalaya 21 years to clear the backlog.
Citing the Supreme Court’s judgment, the report further states that child marriage is child rape and as per the 2011 census, an alarming 4,442 minor girls were married every day, which means that three children were pushed into child marriage every minute. However, only three child marriages are reported every day, as per the NCRB. The study highlights that each FTSC in the country on average disposes of just 28 cases per year, which means the expenditure in one conviction is around Rs nine lakh. “Each FTSC was expected to dispose of 41-42 cases in a quarter and at least 165 in a year.
The data suggests that FTSCs are unable to achieve the set targets even after three years of the launch of the scheme,” the paper states. The founder of ICPF Bhuwan Ribhu said, “The spirit of law needs to be translated into justice for every child. There can be no legal deterrence when a mere three percent of the people accused of sexual offenses against children are convicted. To protect all the children, it is imperative to ensure the protection of children and their families, access to rehabilitation and compensation, and time-bound legal process including trial in the lower courts and subsequent appeals in the High Courts and the Supreme Court.” The report also presents some suggestions about how the situation can be improved.
Firstly, all FTSCs should be operational and there should be a robust framework for output-based monitoring of their functioning. Besides, the entire FTSC staff, from police personnel to the judges, should be exclusively attached to these courts so that they can take up these cases on a priority basis. The research paper further recommends setting up more FTSCs to clear the backlog of cases. Moreover, the FTSCs’ dashboard should be in the public domain for transparency.
