New Delhi: Conviction rate in cases of sexual violence against minors is very low and one of the reasons for this is weak medical reports which lead to acquittal, National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has found in its investigation. The child rights body had told all states and their police to follow a common format of the medical examination report for a strong investigation. "It has been observed that common format for medical examination report of sexual violence is not being followed in all states. Every state has its different format and loopholes were found in the format so we have written a letter and told them to work on one standard format," said Yashwant Jain, a senior member from the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights.
The child rights body has sent the letter to the Chief Secretary of all states and Union Territories in which they have been told to issue necessary directions to all the concerned departments in the state to follow the format for medical-legal examination of the report of Sexual Violence under the POCSO Act, 2012. The copy of the letter was sent to all the police chief of all states and Union territories.
A copy of the letter accessed by the Millennium Post claimed that there has been a considerable rise in the number of registered cases of sexual abuse of children over the years. Despite so much of effort, the conviction rate is very low due to various reasons.
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, has guidelines and protocols namely Medico-legal care for survivors and victims of sexual violence and it has been included in the user book of commission which should be followed for a good medical report. President Ram Nath Kovind on Sunday gave his assent to an Ordinance permitting the death penalty for those convicted of raping girls below the age of 12 years.
It was the effort of Union Minister Maneka Gandhi who had asked her department to work on a proposal for amending the POCSO law to bring in the provision of death penalty for the rape of a minor girls below the age of 12 years.
Data accessed by the Millennium Post from August 26, 2016 to December 8, 2017 revealed sordid state of affairs as 1,153 cases were received by Commission's POCSO E-Box; some of them were about child labour or some contacted to know about the box. There were 59 complaints which were registered under POCSO and so far 46 cases were disposed of under POCSO Act.