POCSO Amendment Bill, 2019 – Free PDF Download

• The Bill amends the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012.
• The Act seeks to protect children from offences such as sexual assault, sexual harassment, and pornography.

• The Department of Women and Child Development, Government of India, came into existence as a separate Ministry with effect from 30th January, 2006, earlier since 1985 it was a Department under the Ministry of Human Resources Development.

 SEXUAL ABUSE OF CHILDREN

• 53.22% children reported having faced one or more forms of sexual abuse.
• Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar and Delhi reported the highest percentage of sexual abuse among both boys and girls.
• 21.90% child respondents reported facing severe forms of sexual abuse and 50.76% other forms of sexual abuse.
• 50% abuses are persons known to the child or in a position of trust and responsibility.
• Under the Act, a person commits “penetrative sexual assault” if he:-

(i)penetrates his penis into the vagina, mouth, urethra or anus of a child.

(ii)makes a child do the same.

(iii)inserts any other object into the child’s body.

(iv)applies his mouth to a child’s body parts.

• Under the Act, “sexual assault” includes actions wherea person touches the vagina, penis, anus or breast of a child with sexual intent without penetration.

AMENDMENTS

• Penetrative sexual assault
• If a person commits “penetrative sexual assault,” the minimum punishment in such cases has been increased from 7 years to 10 years.
• If such a crime has been committed on a child below the age of 16 years, then the punishment will be between 20 years to life.
• Aggravated penetrative sexual assault
• It includes crime committed by police officer, armed forces, or a public servant. It also covers relative of the child. Also, If the assault injures the sexual organs of the child or the child becomes pregnant.
• The Bill adds two more grounds-

(i)assault resulting in death of child

(ii)assault committed during a natural calamity

• The Bill increases the minimum punishment from 10 years to 20 years, and the maximum punishment to death penalty.

Aggravated sexual assault

• The Bill adds two more offences to the definition of aggravated sexual assault. These include:-

(i)assault committed during a natural calamity.

(ii)administrating or help in administering any hormone or any chemical substance, to a child for the purpose of attaining early sexual maturity.

WHY NATURAL CALAMITIES?

• The Ministry of Women and Child Development cites the reports of rapes of young girls in the aftermath of Kedarnath floods.
• Data shows that children constitute 50-60% of victims of calamities.

Storage of pornographic material

• The bill increases the punishment for storage of pornographic material for commercial purposes from 3 to 5 years.
• It also adds two other offences under it-

(i) failing to destroy, or delete, or report pornographic material involving a child.

(ii)transmitting, displaying, distributing such material except for the purpose of reporting it.

POCSO COURT

• The Supreme Court has directed the Centre to set up special courts in each district across the country that have over a 100 cases of child abuse and sexual assault pending trial under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
• After the Nirbhaya case very stringent laws were made, special funds were allocated but this has not stopped the abuse. In fact the crime rate has escalated, Ms. Bachchan said.
• “We are looming on a cultural crisis. If our laws were executed well, the scenario would have been different. There is no fear, no respect amongst the people today for the law enforcement agencies”
• Abir Ranjan Biswas of TMC claimed that POCSO was often misused to cover up cases of elopement or inter-caste marriages.
• He suggested that the Bill should look into the fact that any harassment under the POCSO should be avoided, calling for attempts to curb misuse.

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