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The authorities responsible for the protection of children from abuses in the district, including the Child Welfare Committee (CWC), are facing criticism for the repeated rape of a girl by dozens of people.
As many as 14 cases were registered at Ottapalam police station under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. The saga of rape over a period of two months took place at different places across the State after the CWC sent the girl back to her vulnerable home.
Police had registered three POCSO cases, one in 2018 and two in 2019, against different persons for abusing the girl before COVID-19. The victim from an extremely vulnerable family was then rescued and taken over by the CWC.
However, the CWC is now in the dock for sending the girl back to her home, where she was evidently vulnerable. The saga of drugging and rape of the girl took place this year leading to 14 POCSO cases after the CWC sent the girl back to her family.
Had the CWC acted wisely and responsibly, the girl could have been saved from continual sexual abuse by dozens of persons. The girl is reported to have told the police that she was given various kinds of drugs and liquor, including synthetic drugs like MDMA, abused by multiple men on multiple occasions.
Although 14 POCSO cases were registered, the medical examination of the girl is learned to have revealed that she had been raped by dozens of people. Although the girl could identify some people, there are several others whom she could not identify because the rape took place while she was in a dazed, semi-conscious condition after being drugged.
Although this girl is taken as a case in point, police say the practice followed by the authorities in general is not in the best interest of the children. The CWCs in several districts had begun to show a trend of sending the child rape victims back to their families, citing one Supreme Court order passed in connection with a peculiar case in Bihar.
The incompetency of the CWCs and the district child protection officers is visible from the fact that hardly 4% of the POCSO cases are getting conviction in the State against a national conviction of 12%.
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