1. The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POSCO ACT) was formed in 2012 to protect children below the age of 18 years from serious crimes like sexual abuse, sexual harassment, and pornography.
2. This Act also intends to provide a child-friendly system for the trial of these offenses.
3. Under the POSCO Act it is the duty of the Police to report any offenses related to a child to the Child Welfare Committee inside 24 hours so that the Child Welfare Community can take necessary steps for the security and safety of the concerned minor.
4. There is a provision for medical examination of the child under this act. Doctors should conduct these medical examinations under the guidance of the concerned minor parents or guardians or anyone the child trusts in such a way that it inflicts the minor as minimum pain as possible. If the victim is a girl child, then only a female doctor should do the medical examination.
5. The Court must do the hearing of the cases that comes under the POSCO Act in a closed room and it is also important to keep the concerned child’s identity secret.
6. A Special Court determines the amount of compensation to be paid to the child.
7. POSCO Act makes Provisions of the following punishment;
1. Punishment for raping a girl below the age of 12 years is death.
2. Punishment for raping a girl below 16 years of age is imprisonment for a minimum of 10 years and a maximum of 20 years.
8. Any kind of sexual behaviour towards a child of 18 years of age or below comes under the purview of this law. This law provides equal security to male and female children.
9. If a person uses his private part against a body part of a child, then under Section 3 this is considered a serious crime. POSCO Act specifies punishment for this crime under Section 4 which ranges from 7 years to life imprisonment.
10. If a criminal commits a crime that comes under any other law than the POSCO Act, then the culprit will be under the law that is more severe.
11. If a person touches the private part of a minor or forces a minor to touch their private part, then this will be considered a serious crime under Section 8 and they will be imprisoned for 3–5 years.
12. If a person does any kind of sexual act in front of a minor or forces a minor into doing any kind of sexual act or forces the minor to watch pornography, then they could be punished with a minimum of three years of imprisonment to a maximum of life imprisonment.
13. There is also a provision under the POSCO act that specifies if an adult knows of the sexual abuse suffered by a minor then they have to report it to the nearest Police Station and if they do not do so they can be imprisoned up to 6 months.
This article is written for educational purposes, this is not for any kind of advertisement of the writer.
This article is written for educational purposes, this is not for any kind of advertisement of the writer.