Although “the Protection of Children against Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012” was enacted to create a comprehensive and child-focused legal framework, to prevent, prosecute, and protect children, child sexual abuse remains among the most prevalent yet underreported offences in India. The article focuses on the implementation and enforcement of the POCSO Act by examining the effectiveness of legal measures against child sexual abuse in Rajasthan. The socio-legal environment is highly intricate and intrudes on the reporting, investigation, and adjudication of offences against children in Rajasthan, which is marked by the entrenched patriarchal values, urban-rural inequalities, the tradition of child marriage, and a stigma attached to children in society. The research also follows a socio-legal and evaluation-based approach by filtering through secondary materials, including the statistics proposed by the “National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB),” the decision of the POCSO courts and the Rajasthan High Court, and publications of the various organizations focused on protecting children. Although after POCSO, the number of reported child sexual abuse cases has increased, which may indicate that people are better acquainted with the issue, the outcomes indicate that there is an inversely correlated tendency: the goals of the Act get compromised by such issues as inefficient investigation, a lack of conviction, procedural flaws, and the lack of victim-supporting mechanisms. Instead of poor laws, the article attributes child-friendly justice barriers to systemic implementation challenges and socio-cultural barriers to the efficiency of POCSO in Rajasthan. To fulfil the promise of POCSO and provide justice and protection for child victims, it closes by stressing the need for better institutional coordination, sensitizing players in the legal and police sectors, and community-level interventions.
Verma et al. (Mon,) studied this question.