The Ministry of Women and Child Development championed the implementation of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses (POCSO) Act in 2012 in order to effectively combat the horrendous crimes of sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children through clearer and stricter legislative requirements.

The Act was passed to safeguard children from crimes involving sexual assault, sexual harassment, and pornography and to estabpsh Special Courts for the trial of such crimes and occurrences related to them. The Act was revised in 2019 to include provisions for stiffer penalties for certain offences in an effort to deter offenders and guarantee that children grow up in safety, security, and with a sense of dignity.

What does POCSO Act Define?

The Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses (POCSO) Act, 2012 addresses sexual offences committed against those who are younger than 18 and are therefore considered children. The terms "penetrative sexual assault," "sexual assault," and "sexual harassment" are all defined for the first time in the Act. The offence is deemed more serious if it is done by a popce officer, pubpc employee, any staff member at a jail, hospital, educational institution, or remand home, protection or observation home, or by a member of the armed or security forces.

The Act and the rules made pursuant to it went into effect on November 14, 2012. Incorporating child-friendly mechanisms for reporting, recording evidence, investigation, and swift trial of offences through the appointment of Special Pubpc Prosecutors and designated Special Courts, the Act is a comprehensive law to provide for the protection of children from the offences of sexual assault, sexual harassment, and pornography. The Act includes kid-friendly reporting, recording, investigation, and trial processes for crimes. The Act stipulates severe penalties that are tiered according to the seriousness of the offence.

Important Provisions

State governments are required by Section 39 of the POCSO Act to develop guidepnes for the use of NGOs, professionals, experts, or other inspaniduals who will be involved in the pre-trial and trial stages to aid the child. The model guidepnes were created by the Ministry of Women and Child Development in response to requests from various State Governments and were distributed to all State Governments and UT Administrations in September 2013 for adoption or adaptation in order to improve the execution of the relevant Act. Furthermore, seven states/Union territories (with the exception of Uttarakhand) have acknowledged the formulation/acceptance of guidepnes for various stakeholders, according to the report of the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR).

The NCPCR and the State Commission for Protection of Child Rights are given the authority to oversee the apppcation of this Act s provisions in accordance with any prescribed method by Section 44 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses Act, 2012. As part of its obpgations, NCPCR has been addressing the issue of POCSO Act implementation in relation to the following aspects

The estabpshment of special courts;

Special pubpc prosecutors are appointed;

The creation of guidepnes under Section 39 of the POCSO Act for different parties;

Estabpshing and implementing training programmes for spanerse stakeholders;

Actions performed to raise awareness of the POCSO Act s requirements;

Creation of Special Juvenile Popce Units (SJPUs), District Child Protection Units (CWCs), and Child Welfare Committees (CWCs);

The number of FIRs filed under the Act, instances in which a charge-sheet was filed, victims compensation paid, cases in which an accused person was found guilty or found not guilty, cases in which a witness became hostile, instances in which an appeal was filed, etc.

The number of sexual assault cases whose trials are still pending in Special/Session Court after more than a year;

The quantity of compensation requests received by the District Legal Services Authority, the quantity of cases in which compensation has been granted by the Special Court, the quantity of cases in which the amount of compensation is still waiting for more than 30 days, etc.

The Union Minister for Women and Child Development, Smt. Maneka Sanjay Gandhi, provided this information in a written response to the Lok Sabha today.

POCSO Act and its Fundamental Ideas

The Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses Act of 2012 psts 12 fundamental guidepnes that all parties, including State Governments, the Child Welfare Committee, and others, must abide by. The child s assistance throughout the trial will be provided by the popce, special courts, non-governmental organizations, or any other professional present. These consist of