The existing provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act are more than enough to handle paedophile cases, feel advocates and activists.
“We have ample laws but no fool-proof enforcement machinery,” says advocate and rights activist Sudha Ramalingam. Other advocates too concur with the view, and say the police as well as the victims must be taught to make the best out of the existing laws.
Elaborating, the Tamil Nadu Advocates Association president S Prabakaran said that adding one more piece of legislation to the statute book, creating a special investigation wing, establishing special
He also said that the Juvenile Justice Act in its present form lacked teeth to deal with grave abuse of children, and added that while other states have framed rules to ensure stringent enforcement, Tamil Nadu had not done so despite calls from various quarters.
Referring to the JJ Act provision that requires every police station to have at least one child welfare officer, Prabakaran asks, “Tell me which police station in Chennai, leave alone the rest of the state, has a police personnel trained in child welfare issues on duty round-the- clock.”
Sudha Ramalingam says, “Except for a few anachronistic provisions, the Indian Penal Code is better than anything we can imagine now”. She says the clauses relating to adultery and those biased against women, besides unnatural sex, need revision to suit modern requirements and perceptions.
Recalling the travails of a family, from where a boy had been enticed by child abusers, she says the teenager was first introduced to pornographic movies before trapping him in a huge racket. “I convinced the family and helped them muster courage to lodge a complaint with the then commissioner of Chennai Police. Despite giving all necessary details about the racketeers, nothing happened,” Sudha Ramalingam said. She also recalled an occasion where the family members of a girl who was abused took exception to the case being reported to the police.
In the absence of state rules, the guidelines laid down by the Madras High Court serve as guiding principle in the trail of such child-abuse cases. The court has said that a child-friendly environment should be created in those courts, and the proceedings should be in-camera. The child should not be made to depose or recount its distress more than once, it has said, adding that the child should be shielded from the accused and under no circumstances the accused should be allowed to have a glimpse of the child.
Why, despite all these safeguards, not many paedophile cases end in conviction? “Lack of awareness on the part of police as well as the victim’s family is to be blamed for that,” says Sudha Ramalingam.
FA CT FILE Children’s homes run by NGOs
891 Children’s homes run with govt grant
178 Homes run by government
27 Unauthorised homes
800-1,000 No. of children housed in homes run with grant
4,000 No. of children housed in govt homes
800 Estimated no. of children in homes across the state
3.5 lakh Human rights activists feel officials should be proactive and find out from children how they are treated in homes Juvenile Justice Act in its present form lacks teeth to deal with grave abuse of children, say advocates
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