An Analysis of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (POCSO ACT)

Abstract

The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 commonly known as POCSO Act is a comprehensive law to provide for the protection of children from the offences of sexual assault, sexual harassment and pornography, while safeguarding the interests of the child at every stage of the judicial process by incorporating child-friendly mechanisms for reporting, recording of evidence, investigation and speedy trial of offences through designated Special Courts.

The inadequacy of Indian Penal Code and absence of any stringent legislation for addressing and tackling heinous crimes such as sexual exploitation and sexual abuse of children along with due compliance of Article 15 of Constitution of India which mandates the states to protect the children of India and the United Nations Conventions on the Rights of the Child which prescribes the set of standards to be followed by state parties in securing the best interest of the child, birthed the commencement of POCSO Act, 2012.

The paper enumerates both the substantive part of the Act, where it talks about the various sexual offences that is committed against the child victim along with their punishments and also the procedural part of the Act, which contains the procedure required to be followed to report the case with special mention to the process of medical examination of the victim. The paper also deals with The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Amendment) Bill, 2019 which enhanced the punishment for various offences along with the introduction of death penalty due to the steep rise in the cases registered under the Act.

Keywords: sexual offences, child sexual offences, penal law, POCSO Act