Sexual Offense Against Children and Legislative Protection in India: An Introduction

Sexual offences against the children has always been a hidden problem in India and largely been ignored in public discourse making the issue more severe and complex. Only recently, it has been acknowledged as a major threat to the wellbeing of the children in India. In India, there has been very less understanding of the extent, magnitude and trends of this complex and rigid problem. The growing complexities of life and the dramatic changes brought about by socio – economic transition in the society have played a major role in increasing the vulnerability of the children to various and newer forms of abuse. Keeping the development of this intricacy trends in the society, the Government in order to combat with this social evil, brought in a special law – the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012 criminalizing a range of serious acts to safeguard the interest of the children. The Act brought in a lot of magnificent changes in the practice of dealing the sensitive matters related to children. In the present paper, the authors firstly will discuss the status quo of the crime against children in India; secondly will analyse the provisions of POCSO Act, 2012; thirdly will filter the NCRB Data on the crime against the children; fourthly will discuss the issues and challenges against the newly enacted POCSO Act, 2012.

Keywords:
India, Children, Sexual Offences, POCSO.