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POCSO among bills to be reintroduced during Parliament session
As per the proposed amendment, a district magistrate’s role will be widened to oversee and monitor implementation of adoption process.
Adding to the changes that her predecessor former union minister Maneka Gandhi had proposed to the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2015, union minister Smriti Irani is bringing in similar amendments to the legislation which will be introduced in the upcoming session of the Parliament.
In addition to that, the ministry is also set to reintroduce the The Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill 2018, and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Amendment) Bill, 2019.
As per the proposed amendments to the JJ Act, the district magistrate’s role will be widened to oversee and monitor implementation of the entire adoption process, effectively making it the appellate and monitoring authority of the district-wise adoptions carried out by the State Adoption Resource Agency (SARA).
Officials of the WCD ministry said that the new changes have been proposed keeping in mind after cases of rape and sexual abuse in shelter homes emerged in Uttar Pradesh’s Deoria and Bihar’s Muzaffarpur last year.
“The changes will allow the district magistrate to go beyond simply officiating the adoption by issuing the order, to monitoring the process at the district level. The role was not defined in the previous amendment to the JJ Act,” said the official. Most of the responsibilities and powers of the magistrate will further be elaborated in the Rules in case the Bill is passed.
Another official said that as the changes are “minor”, they were greenlighted during an inter-ministerial discussion held earlier this month, along with officials of the law ministry.
In July last year, the WCD ministry had introduced the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Amendment Bill 2018, under which the district magistrate was empowered to issue adoption orders instead of district courts, as per the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2015. It was introduced in the Lok Sabha on August 6, but could not be passed in either Houses, and hence, lapsed.
The ministry will also reintroduce the POCSO Amendment Bill which seeks to award the death penalty in cases of aggravated penetrative sexual assault of children, irrespective of gender, and also brings in a section to penalise the possession of child pornography to upto three years in jail. The Bill, introduced in the Budget Session, was not passed in either House.
Apart from that, the ministry will reintroduce the The Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2018, as it had lapsed. It was passed by the Lok Sabha on July 26 last year, but could not be passed by the Rajya Sabha. The bill sought to widen the definition of trafficking to include aggravated forms of trafficking forced labour, organ trafficking, and problems faced by Indians trafficked abroad. Punishments under the Bill ranged from a minimum of rigorous imprisonment and 10 years to life term.
