NEW DELHI: Taking a serious view of complaints that many child victims of sexual abuse under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act, who belong to the SC/ST community, are not being given compensation as stipulated under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, the child rights body NCPCR has highlighted data from its Pocso case tracking portal that shows, of the 5,178 cases being monitored, 1,564 — a little over 30% — involve victims from the SC/ST community.
However, information on the status of whether these children have been compensated under the SC&ST Act wherever applicable has not been provided to the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) by many states. The NCPCR portal mandates that states update the status of cases, compensation and rehabilitation.
Citing data from the portal in a letter issued to all state chief secretaries on Oct 7, NCPCR had asked them to take immediate action to ensure compensation for SC/ST Pocso victims and establish state-specific victim compensation schemes for all victims, including SC and ST victims, to ensure timely financial assistance to these children as well.
“Despite the availability of this data and the clear legal obligations, there remains a significant deficiency in the disbursement of compensation to these victims,” the Commission had said in its letter. It cited, data on the portal shows that in Punjab 48% of Pocso victims belong to the SC/ST category but the Commission has not received any information on whether they have been compensated under the SC&ST Act. The figure stands at 45% in Karnataka and 35% in Tamil Nadu, but in both cases data on compensation has not been provided, NCPCR said in the letter.
NCPCR had then sought a compliance report within 10 days. However, even more than a month later a response has been received only from Uttar Pradesh.
That the problem is widespread is evident from the complaint of the NGO Just Rights for Children, which informed the NCPCR that, in their work on approximately 19,000 cases of sexual abuse, they identified a significant number of child victims of trafficking and offences under the Pocso Act who fall under the provisions of the SC & ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. The Act mandates that victims of atrocities are entitled to immediate relief, either in cash or kind, irrespective of the outcome of the trial, in addition to compensation available under other applicable laws or relevant schemes.
