‘No funds to make special courts child-friendly’

Kushal Singh, chairperson, National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), called the POCSO Act one of the most sensitively-drafted Acts.

Kushal Singh (second from left), chairperson, NCPCR, interacts with teachers at a child rights sensitisation workshop on Thursday. D. Sabitha (extreme left), principal secretary, school education, is also in the picture -- Photo: M. Vedhan

Though special courts have been nominated in most States under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO), 2012, nothing much has happened towards making them child-friendly, said Kushal Singh, chairperson, National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), on her first visit to the city after her appointment.

Speaking on the sidelines of the one-day workshop on child rights organised by NCPCR and the State Council for Educational Research and Training, she called the POCSO Act one of the most sensitively-drafted Acts.

It had brought the focus on issues related to child sexual abuse and assault. However, she noted, no funds had been allotted to the judiciary to make these courts — which are regular courts given the designation of special courts — child-friendly.

She said since the constitution of State committees for protection of child rights, the number of complaints registered by NCPCR had gone down.

“Whenever we receive a complaint, we ask the State government to send a report on the matter. The advantage of the complaint being forwarded from the Commission is routine complaints keep coming to the departments. But the Commission sends it to the secretary concerned and they have to reply to us,” she said.

Recently, they had signed an MoU with ChildLine Foundation to initiate enquiries into cases which could not be delayed, she said.

On the RTE Act, she said while there had been improvement in terms of infrastructure across the country, ‘so far as the spirit of the Act is concerned, I have to accept that as a commission we are quite disappointed.’

Guilty teacher may lose degree

Further to a 2012 government order which makes provision for dismissal of a teacher found guilty of child sexual abuse, the government is also contemplating revoking the B.Ed degree of the teacher concerned, said D. Sabitha, school education secretary, at the inauguration of the one-day workshop on child rights.

Stating they had already dismissed five to six teachers, she said the Chief Minister had said there is no point in simply dismissing the guilty if they are going to take up employment elsewhere.

“We are trying to see if it is possible,” she said.