SCHOOL OF LAW, GALGOTIAS UNIVERSITY

EVIL OF CHILD ABUSE

WORKSHOP
Anklesh Kumar, Shashank Gautam & Pranjali Srivastava
INTRODUCTION

Child maltreatment is a leading cause of childhood serious injuries and fatalities. As the
most widely available helping professionals in communities, police have a natural role in
preventing and responding to child abuse and neglect. Not only are police legally mandated
to enforce the law and protect residents' safety, but also they are generally committed to
children's welfare.

Child abuse and neglect are very difficult problems. The injuries sustained often resemble
those caused by unintentional or accidental situations, and police must carefully evaluate all
reasonable explanations. The stakes are highif police misdiagnose the cause of injuries,
the potential for future victimization exists. Further, the victim is always a child, and some
are very young. Police need to understand children's developmental capacitiestheir
language and cognitive abilitiesto be able to communicate with the victims of these
crimes. Finally, unlike many other crimes that occur in public places, child abuse and
neglect usually occurs in private places, and the victims may try to hide evidence of the
abuse or deny that it took place. As a result, collecting sufficient evidence to determine
whether a crime occurred and to identify effective responses to the problem is very difficult.

QUESTIONS ASKED FROM THE STUDENTS

Have you ever suffered Mental/Verbal/Physical Abuse?

If yes, have you ever told anyone about it?
Do you know about POCSO?
Do you know there are organisations that help children who have suffered child
abuse?
Have you told anyone about it in your family?
Did anyone take requisite steps for the same?

ABOUT POCSO
In order to effectively address the heinous crimes of sexual abuse and sexual
exploitation of childrenthrough less ambiguous and more stringent legal
provisions, the Ministry of Women and Child Development championed the
introduction of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act,
2012.
The Act defines a child as any person below eighteen years of age, and regards
the best interests and well-being of the child as being of paramount importance
at every stage, to ensure the healthy physical, emotional, intellectual and social
development of the child. It defines different forms of sexual abuse, including
penetrative and non-penetrative assault, as well as sexual harassment and
pornography, and deems a sexual assault to be aggravated under certain
circumstances, such as when the abused child is mentally ill or when the abuse
is committed by a person in a position of trust or authority vis--vis the child,
like a family member, police officer, teacher, or doctor. People who traffic
children for sexual purposes are also punishable under the provisions relating
to abetment in the Act. The Act prescribes stringent punishment graded as per
the gravity of the offence, with a maximum term of rigorous imprisonment for
life, and fine.
Under Section 44 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences
(POCSO) Act and Rule 6 of POCSO Rules, 2012, the National Commission
for Protection of Child Rights, in addition to its assigned functions, also
mandated:
1. To monitor in the implementation of Protection of Children from Sexual
Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012;
2. To monitor the designation of Special Courts by State Governments;
3. To monitor the appointment of Public Prosecutors by State
Governments;
4. To monitor the formulation of the guidelines described in section 39 of
the Act by the State Governments, for the use of non-governmental
organisations, professionals and experts or persons having knowledge of
psychology, social work, physical health, mental health and child
development to be associated with the pre-trial and trial stage to assist
the child, and to monitor the application of these guidelines;
5. To monitor the designing and implementation of modules for training
police personnel and other concerned persons, including officers of the
Central and State Governments, for the effective discharge of their
functions under the Act;
6. To monitor and support the Central Government and State Governments
for the dissemination of information relating to the provisions of the Act
through media including the television, radio and print media at regular
intervals, so as to make the general public, children as well as their
parents and guardians aware of the provisions of the Act;
7. To call for a report on any specific case of child sexual abuse falling
within the jurisdiction of a CWC;
8. To collect information and data on its own or from the relevant agencies
regarding reported cases of sexual abuse and their disposal under the
processes established under the Act, including information on the
following:-
o Number and details of offences reported under the Act;
o Whether the procedures prescribed under the Act and rules were
followed,Including those regarding timeframes;
o Details of arrangements for care and protection of victims of
offences under this Act, including arrangements for emergency
medical care and medical examination; and
o Details regarding assessment of the need for care and protection
of a child by the concerned CWC in any specific case.
9. To assess the implementation of the provisions of the Act and to include
a report in a separate chapter in its Annual Report to the Parliament.

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

SHASHANK GAUTAM

The session was quite interactive with children and as well as teachers.
We have provided a good time to interact and children are keen to
interact with us. We asked children about did they ever heard about the
law relating to human rights and rights of child in India as well as in the
whole world. As expected they dont know about the rights and law. So
first the children are very shy and are hesitate to answer my question so I
just make session easy and calm dont want to discuss that can disturb
them in any way. I asked what they want to become and what they have
to do to become what they desire. I have tell about the rights declared by
the UN that every child under age 18 have to be declared minor and they
have rights to have food and shelter under unicef. I was happy to hear
they get very little punishment by the teachers and I havent found any
child that I can see isnt happy. There is huge number of children
actively in sports and some also played national . so that experienced
was good and delightful.

ANKLESH KUMAR

My interaction with the students was heartful and they all appeared to be
extremely charmed to have the capacity to skirt a class to go to our
workshop. The kids had no clue about types of child abuse or the
associations that deal with the same. We enlightened them concerning
their rights, how they could contact an authority on the off chance that
they at any point experienced anything like this.

For me the workshop gave knowledge with reference to what could

occur under our own noses, that individuals frequently tend to choose not
to see, to remain back and trust another person and see that trust being
exploited. I can think back and consider episodes that I witnessed that I
may have taken care of distinctively had I gotten the chance that I had
 the learning that I now have from doing this workshop. It is my
conviction that any people and additionally association that work
straightforwardly with youngsters ought to edify the kids about the
fiendishness of child abuse that sneaks in our general public, if for no
other explanation yet to get an idea about the types of manhandles.

PRANJALI SRIVASTAVA

First of all, I would like to start sharing my experience from the very
beginning. First thing which I learned through this workshop is teamwork and
how to work as a team. Our topic was Child Abuse, so we started researching
through internet, we downloaded many files and then we came with the
execution part. My work was to prepare the questionnaire for the targeted
audience. I went through many questionnaires and then I prepared a
questionnaire on that basis. So, second thing which I learned was about
questionnaire. Now our next part of the task was to allocate the presentation
work. My work was to conclude the workshop. During the workshop I realised
the importance of law because during that time I saw in the eyes of the teachers
and students that they are somehow dependant on us and we need to do justice
to them and to our profession. We were giving presentation to the 6 th 8th class
students , Next thing was Child Abuse, of Course through this workshop I
learned about Child Abuse but I also came to know about that our society is
way back in terms of knowledge and awareness. Teachers and Students are not
aware about the Child Abuse, they were never seen any such workshop, which
raises concern on our educational system also. What I felt about myself was
much to do for the society, more to learn and more to spread. I had a great time
with them, students and staffs been nice. From this workshop my confidence
has been increased and also I learned how to speak proper Hindi. I would like
to do more workshops in nearing future.