MALAPPURAM: The District Child Protection Committee (DCPC) has roped in 16 legislators including the Speaker to push for its long pending demand to set up a special children’s court to deal with cases under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. The DCPC had passed resolutions several times in the past demanding the government to set up a POCSO Court in the district which has the highest child population in the state.
The district has also been witnessing huge number of cases involving offences against children. Currently the POCSO cases is being tried at the additional district court in Manjeri which also deals with a plethora of other cases. This has led to delays in cases involving children. Of the 850 cases under POCSO act registered between 2013 and 2017 in the district, only 156 cases were disposed. “It takes average four years for a POCSO case involving children to be disposed in a court in the district now. As the number of cases are on the rise each year the situation may worsen which may affect the children,” Unnikrishan said.
District Child Protection Officer Sameer Machingal said that considering the child population in the district which comes to around 40 per cent of the total population a children’s court should be set up immediately in the district. “The number of pending POCSO cases are on the rise in the district. Though POCSO and National Commission for Protection of Child Right acts mandate disposition of cases involving children within a year the things are getting worse because of the lack of a dedicated court as per law,” he said. 244 POCSO cases had been registered in Malappuram in 2016 which came down to 217 in 2017.
