From Awareness to Enforcement: The Role of POCSO Act, 2012 in Child Abuse Prevention in India

Abstract

The Government of India has passed the Protection of Children against Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012 to ensure the safety of the children exposed to sexual offences, a child-friendly legislation on both the victims and the legal justice. Although this is due to the noble intentions of taking this road, the route between how it is known and how it is applied in preventing child abuse is a tough path to be traversed in India. The following paper will look into details of POCSO Act, its purpose and content, its process of implementation and enforcement within India. It investigates into the functions of awareness campaigns and the problems of implementation, and the pitfalls and triumphs in the implementation of the law in the rural and urban settings. Lastly, the paper outlines the major obstacles in success of implementing policy like inadequacy of trained professionals, stigma in the society and delays in court and proposes solutions to them. Based on this analysis, the paper will be able to give a complete picture of how POCSO Act has assisted in prevention of child abuse and status in the future.