Child abuse in Assam

A directive issued by a division bench of the Gauhati High Court asking the Assam government to file an affidavit in connection with a PIL on issues like vulnerable witnesses, deposition centres required for POCSO Courts, child-friendly courts, and investigations in POCSO offences has once again brought to the fore that all is not well with the implementation of provisions laid down in the Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences Act in the state. Going by what has been reported in the media, things are also not in proper shape as far as setting up facilities as provided in the POCSO Act is concerned. Child-friendly courts, as has been pointed out, are far from being actually available, thus pushing a child facing sexual abuse into another phase of trauma and suffering, which add up to a fresh round of violations of rights. Other issues that have come to focus in the High Court’s directive include whether POCSO kits required for conducting investigations are made available within the reach of all police stations or not and whether other special or specific requirements have been provided for or not. Another issue that has come forward is the status of the Special POCSO Police and whether steps have been initiated for imparting training to those police officers who are assigned to carry out investigations of POCSO cases. Assam, it may be noted, recorded the 13th highest number of cases registered under POCSO, as mentioned in the NCRB Report of 2021. While the number of incidents of sexual abuse of children had risen by 28 percent in 2021 over the previous year, it was only recently that an incident of sexual abuse of a child allegedly adopted violating the adoption law, which came to light in Guwahati, rocked the entire country. One must accept that awareness about sexual abuse of children continues to be alarmingly low in Assam, and this level of poor awareness cuts, among other things, across the socio-economic status of perpetrators as well as victims. Pushing sexual abuse cases under the carpet continues to be the practise even among educated people, while schools are yet to adopt mechanisms through which awareness against such abuse can be increased among children. Given this scenario, what Assam needs is a vigorous campaign involving social organisations like the Mahila Samiti and Xatra institutions to generate the required level of awareness across the state.