News Highlight
The Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses Act (POCSO Act) forces Adivasis in the Nilgiris into conflict with the law.
Key Takeaway
- Child marriage happens among the Adivasis in Nilgiris, which came into conflict with the law.
- Adivasis in Nilgiris don’t know about the POCSO Act and its provisions.
POCSO Act
- About
- POCSO, or The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO Act) 2012, was established to protect children against sexual abuse, sexual harassment, and pornography.
- Amendment
- The Act was amended in 2019 to make provisions for the enhancement of punishments for various offences to deter the perpetrators and ensure a child’s safety, security and dignified childhood.
Key features of the Act
- A gender-neutral Act
- By defining a child as ‘any person below the age of 18 years, the POCSO Act sets a gender-neutral tone for the legal framework available to child sexual abuse victims.
- It is an offence not to report abuse.
- It requires every person who suspects or knows of a sexual offence committed against a child to report it to the local police or the Special Juvenile Police Unit.
- No time limit for reporting abuse
- A victim can report an offence at any time, even several years after the abuse has been committed.
- Confidentiality of victim’s identity
- Section 23 of the POCSO Act prohibits disclosure of the victim’s identity in any form of media except when permitted by the special courts established under the Act.
- A violation of this section can attract punishments under the Act.
Provisions of the Amendment Bill 2019
- Penetrative sexual assault
- Under the Act, a person commits “penetrative sexual assault” if he:
- Penetrates his penis into the vagina, mouth, urethra or anus of a child
- Inserts any other object into the child’s body
- Applies his mouth to a child’s body parts.
- The punishment for such an offence is imprisonment between seven years to life and a fine.
- The Bill increases the minimum sentence from seven years to ten years.
- It further adds that if a person commits penetrative sexual assault on a child below the age of 16 years, he will be punished with imprisonment between 20 years to life, with a fine.
- Pornographic purposes
- Under the Act, a person is guilty of using a child for pornographic purposes if he uses a child in any form of media for the purpose of sexual gratification.
- The Act also penalises persons who use children for pornographic purposes resulting in sexual assault.
- The Bill defines child pornography as any visual depiction of sexually explicit conduct involving a child, including photographs, video, and digital or computer-generated images indistinguishable from an actual child.
Adivasis in the Nilgiris
- About
- The Nilgiris district is one of the districts in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
- Name
- Nilgiri is the name given to a range of mountains spread across the borders of the states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala.
- The Nilgiri Hills are part of a larger mountain chain known as the Western Ghats.
- Adivasis
- There are nine ethnic groups scattered in the area:
- Toda, Irular, Paniyar, Jenu Kurumbar, Betta Kurumbar, Mulla Kurumbar, Kattunaikar, Kothar, and Alu Kurumbar.
Content Source: The Hindu