Sexual Offences Against Children in India

Book excerpt: Sexual Offences Against Children in India examines the evolution of the law pertaining to sexual violence against children, the judicial decisions since the inception of the POCSO Act till date with respect to aspects of the POCSO Act and the best practices from other developed jurisdictions for handling cases and victims of child abuse. Despite being prevalent, violence against children is often hidden or underreported, though its impact is widely acknowledged. In a country like India the vocabulary to communicate around sexuality and sexual abuse is almost non-existent. India has seen its journey from having no law on sexual abuse of children to having a “special” law in the form of the Protection of Children against Sexual Offences Act 2012 (POCSO Act). This book demystifies the problem of sexual violence against children in India pre- and post-POCSO Act. There is also a novel attempt to examine the implementation of the POCSO Act in the eastern Indian states of Odisha, Jharkhand and West Bengal, and if its objectives were being attained – in content, in implementation, and in impact. This book will be useful for police, judiciary and government officials, scholars, and researchers studying comparative aspects of dealing with sexual offence cases against children.