July 17, 2019
Ahamed Hassan speaks on the need to curb increasing cases of child rape in the country
FULL TRANSCRIPT
A child is sexually abused every 15 minutes in India. The crime is growing at such an alarming rate and has become so endemic that the Supreme Court of India registered a suo motu PIL on the rise in child rape cases and delay in the probe and trial of these cases.
The Supreme Court prepared a list of child rape cases from January to June 2019, and found that out of the 24,000 cases lodged during this time, only 900 had completed trial and been disposed of. That is, only 0.4 out of every 10 cases has been disposed of.
From January 1 to June 30 this year, 24,212 FIRs have been filed across India. Of these, 11,981 are still being probed and the police have filed chargesheets in 12,231 cases. Trials have commenced in only 6,449 cases.
We need to adopt a zero tolerance policy against such heinous crimes and pass a legislation which ensures prompt resolution of such cases with harsh punishments.
Sir, the question is how to prevent child rapes and molestation. Firstly, I would say that only passing stringent laws is not enough. We have POCSO and recently death penalty has also been included in a Bill. But these are not deterring the rapists and more incidents of child abuse are being reported.
Sir, in my view, all these perpetrators of child rape should be punished as much as possible. In most cases, the criminals are not punished for legal tangle and the negligent attitude of police and administration. In such cases all the legal expenses of the victim’s party should be borne by the government and the government should provide full protection. The negligent police officers should be punished. Sometimes it becomes difficult for the victim’s family even to lodge an FIR in a police station.
Sir, nowadays with the easy access and availability of the internet and smartphones, and easy access to porn, child porn is being viewed by a large number of people, even by adults and students. This has to be banned or fully regulated. Parents, teachers and children have to be made aware about the dangerous types of sexual attacks by strangers and even relatives.
