Govt, crime records bureau join hands to curb child sexual abuse

The NCRB and the ministry officials will build a data bank on instances and cases listed under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012, to find correlations and other specifics as part of the plan.

In an effort to curb down on instances of child sex abuse, the union ministry of women and child development is working alongside the National Crime Records Bureau to come up with more specific data on child abuse.

Officials said data on the number of cases that list the relationship between a minor victim and an assaulter exists.(AFP file photo for representation)

Officers of the NCRB and the WCD ministry will now build a data bank on instances and cases under the offences listed under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act 2012 to find correlations and other specifics.

Ministry officials said that while some of these data have been independently recorded, the government does not have additional official data than what is recorded in the NCRB’s annual crime statistics. For instance, while data on the number of cases that lists the relationship between the minor victim and the assaulter exists, the government has no official data. As part of the new efforts, data such as whether the accuser is a family relative or a person the child trusts, such as a teacher, driver, etc., will be recorded. An orientation course for NCRB officers is on the anvil.

Currently, the NCRB, which is the central nodal agency under the Cyber Crime Prevention against Women and Children (CCPWC) scheme, lists data under several sections of the POCSO Act. These include sections 4 and 6 of the POCSO Act as well as section 376 of the Indian Penal Code which penalises child rape, sections 8 and 10 of the POCSO Act as well as section 354 of th IPC which penalises sexual assault of minors.

Additionally, the NCRB also has lists cases under section 12 of the POCSO Act and section 509 of IPC that records instances of sexual harassment of minors, and section 14 and 15 of the POCSO Act that deal with cases of child pornography.

As per the 2016 crime statistics of the NCRB, the total number of cases under POCSO recorded in 2014-15 are 36,321. Data from the NCRB for the years 2017 and 2018 are awaited.

As part of the ministry’s efforts to come down heavily on child sex abuse cases, the Empowered Committee of officers for funding under Nirbhaya Fund on Thursday approved 1,073 fast track courts across the country to deal with crimes under POCSO and the Criminal Law Amendment Act to clear up backlogs in courts.

The Committee had approved these courts in November last year to clear pending cases under POCSO. Now, these courts will also deal with cases pending under the Criminal Law Amendment Act. To set up these courts, which will have a tenure of a year, Rs 750 crores have been set aside of which Rs 474 will be borne by the Centre.

Officials of the WCD ministry said that 18 states have agreed to have these courts set up, each of which will have Rs 75 lakh earmarked for it. Currently, there are 664 dedicated existing special fast track courts and 2,021 public prosecutors, as per data with the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights. Maharashtra, Tripura, West Bengal, Meghalaya, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Manipur, Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Mizoram, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu, Assam and Haryana have all agreed to set up these courts.

A ministry spokesperson said that WCD minister Smriti Irani will write to chief ministers of the states who have not come on board yet.

Vidya Reddy of the Chennai-based Tulir Centre for Prevention and Healing of Child Sexual Abuse said that the changes need to be studied more in detail to understand whether they are cosmetic or add value. “Forensics in offline cases take a minimum of 2-3 months while online take even longer. There needs to be more cyber forensics labs which easily available to investigating authorities,” said Reddy.