The Kerala State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) has directed the Inspector General of Police, Crime Branch, to take necessary steps and develop effective methods to curb child pornography and other sexual crimes against children in the State. Acting on a petition filed by a human rights activist in Kannur, Commission member K. Byjunath had sought reports from the Director of General Education as well as the IGP of the Crime Branch. The Commission has come up with a set of recommendations for schools as well as the police in this regard.
The petitioner had sought the SHRC’s intervention in directing the Home Department to take steps to curb child pornography, as the police was allegedly slow in taking action in this regard. He also sought a direction to cyber experts to look into darknet and social media platforms such as Instagram and Telegram to track such cases. Along with this, the petitioner sought the intervention of departments of education, health and police to appoint a clinical psychologist in every school in the State and sensitise children to crimes against them.
The Director of General Education informed the Commission in a report that appointing a clinical psychologist in every school would bring a huge financial burden to the government and instead suggested counselling classes in collaboration with the Health Department or utilising services of counsellors in high schools more effectively.
The IG of Crime Branch, in his report, said about ‘P-Hunt’, an operation in place in the department since 2017, exclusively against child sexual abuse offenders in the internet. It also says about CCSE, a dedicated unit to track online sexual abuse offenders, which works in coordination with international organisations.
Appreciating efforts taken by the police and considering the seriousness of the matter, the Commission has directed the IG to effectively monitor the operations mentioned in his report and take steps to create awareness among students and parents regarding such crimes.
The Commission has directed the Director of General Education to see that each educational institution regularly conducts counselling programmes for students with the help of NGOs or the Department of Social Justice. The Director has to ask heads of educational institutions to seek the help of the district and taluk-level Legal Services Authority for conducting awareness classes and providing legal services to parents, students or teachers.
