Chief Justice of Telangana HC calls for war against child abuse

HYDERABAD: Chief Justice of the Telangana High Court Justice Ujjal Bhuyan has called for a war against child abuse, as they had risen to alarming levels. Incidentally, India is among the five countries in the dubious category.

The Chief Justice said that a 2018 report had stated that 109 children of both genders are abused either sexually or in other forms every day, which had gone up by 22 per cent in the following year. He pointed out that child abuse was under-reported for various reasons.

He also mentioned about a study conducted several years ago that came up with a startling revelation that approximately 7,200 children, including infants, are raped every year.

He was speaking after inaugurating a meeting of stakeholders on POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act, at the Judicial Academy in Secunderabad on Saturday. It was aimed at sensitising stakeholders from Telangana State Judicial Academy, Justice Juvenile Committee and Telangana High Court on appropriate implementation of the Act.

Chief Justice Bhuyan mentioned the book, ‘Every Child Matters’ by Nobel Peace laureate Kailash Satyarthi and said that children continue to be preyed upon , Society often ignores child sexual abuse owing to family pride or fear of stigma.

As per reports, 53 per cent of the child population had been victim of child abuse in one form or the other and one out of four adults was involved in sexual abuse of children, he said.

He asked the stakeholders to concentrate on paying the victim compensation in POCSO cases. He also opined that the age-group of 16 to 18 years was a grey area and needed to be discussed extensively.

Justice Shameem Akther of the High Court asked how it could be said that the POCSO Act was being implemented effectively, when more than 300 cases were pending for five years. The Act mandated that statements be recorded in two months and the cases disposed of in one year.

Justice Vinod Kumar Tadakamalla , chairperson of the Juvenile Justice Committee, said that coordination was needed among the stakeholders to implement the Act with a stern hand.

Chief secretary Somesh Kumar said that aggravated offences on children by persons who they knew, like relatives, hostel wardens, keepers, was increasing. He said that in 93 per cent of such cases the offenders were known to the children. He said that a first-of-its-kind child friendly POCSO Act court had been established in Warangal and similar courts would come up elsewhere in the state.

DGP B. Mahendar Reddy said that 17,375 cases were registered in the state under the Act. Re-victimisation was a major challenge that the victims faced and the stakeholders must focus on this aspect, he said.

High Court judges Justice Annireddy Abhishek Reddy, Justice Radha Rani and Justice Surepally Nanda gave presentations about awareness to judicial officers, public prosecutors, police officers, doctors and psychologists and others on conducting proceedings in POCSO cases in a child-friendly manner.