Child Abuse

And economic exploitation. Child labour, worked in [Child Labour: Causes and Consequences], and trafficking, worked in [Trafficking and Prostitution].

The causes

Poverty and household stress. Not because poor households are more violent by nature, but because crowding, insecurity, debt, migration and the absence of childcare produce the conditions in which abuse and neglect occur, and because a poor household has no alternative arrangement when a caregiver fails.

The acceptance of physical punishment. A society in which hitting a child is understood as discipline has no line to cross, and that is why prohibitions in institutions preceded any prohibition in the home, which does not exist in India.

Authority over the child. Personal law and custom vest a father with guardianship and a household head with authority, and the criminal law's own general exceptions for acts done in good faith by a guardian reflect the same idea.

Invisibility. The household is the least observed place in society, the child is not believed against an adult, and until 2012 no person outside the family had any duty to say anything.

No forum. A child cannot instruct a lawyer, cannot go to a police station alone and, before the Child Welfare Committees, had nobody to be produced before.

And in institutions, the absence of inspection. Sections 54 and 55 of the Juvenile Justice Act provide for inspection committees and for evaluation, and the recurring reports of abuse in children's homes are what those provisions exist for.

The effects

Physical. Injury, malnutrition, untreated illness, and in the worst cases death, which is under-recorded because the cause is entered as something else.

Developmental. Delayed growth, impaired language and cognition in the young, and interrupted or abandoned schooling.

Psychological. Anxiety, depression, post-traumatic symptoms, self-harm and suicide risk, and difficulty in forming trusting relationships in adulthood.

Behavioural. Aggression, withdrawal, substance use and, in a proportion of cases, contact with the juvenile justice system, which is why the Act's principle of institutionalisation as a last resort matters.

Intergenerational. The transmission of the pattern of parenting, which is the finding most consistently reported across studies and the reason why intervention with the abused child is also prevention for the next generation.

And on the community. Reduced schooling and impaired health translate into lower earnings across a cohort, which is the argument that reaches a finance ministry when a rights argument does not.

Why it is under-reported

The offender is known to the child. Which means that reporting is reporting a father, an uncle, a teacher or a neighbour, with consequences for the whole household.

Shame and the family's reputation, particularly where the abuse is sexual and the child is a girl, and where marriage prospects are believed to be affected.

The fear of the police station. Which POCSO answers directly: under section 24 the statement is recorded at the child's residence or a place of the child's choice, as far as practicable by a woman police officer not below the rank of sub-inspector, who shall NOT BE IN UNIFORM, and no child shall be detained at a police station at night.

Disbelief. Which section 29's presumption answers for the offences under sections 3, 5, 7 and 9, by requiring the Special Court to presume that the accused committed the offence unless the contrary is proved.

And the absence of a duty on the bystander, which section 19 answers.

The duty to report

Section 19 of POCSO. Notwithstanding the criminal procedure law, ANY PERSON, INCLUDING THE CHILD, who has apprehension that an offence under the Act is likely to be committed, or knowledge that one has been committed, SHALL provide the information to the Special Juvenile Police Unit or the local police. The report is to be recorded in writing, in simple language so that the child understands its contents, read over to the informant and entered in a book.

Section 20. Personnel of the media, a hotel, lodge, hospital, club, studio or photographic facility, irrespective of the number of persons employed, must report any material or object that is sexually exploitative of a child.

Section 21. Failure to report or to record: up to six months, or fine, or both; and for a person in charge of a company or institution who fails to report in respect of a subordinate, up to one year and fine. A CHILD is not liable under this section.

Section 22. A person who makes a false complaint or gives false information in respect of sections 3, 5, 7 or 9 solely to humiliate, extort, threaten or defame is punishable with up to six months or fine or both; a CHILD who does so is not punishable; and a person, not being a child, who makes a false complaint against a child is punishable with up to one year.

And what the duty produced. In Just Rights for Children Alliance v. S. Harish the Supreme Court held that section 19 read with sections 20 and 21 imposes a legal obligation on any person with apprehension or knowledge of an offence, and that section 42A gives the Act overriding effect. That is the strongest statement of the reporting duty, and it is worked in [The Sexual Exploitation of Children].

The criticism of the duty, which must be stated. A mandatory report by a doctor or counsellor removes the confidentiality on which an adolescent's access to health advice depends, and it is the principal reason a pregnant adolescent may not attend a hospital at all. That is the tension worked in [How Far POCSO Has Worked] and it has no clean answer.

What the machinery does with an abused child

Production before the Child Welfare Committee. Under sections 27 to 30 of the Juvenile Justice Act, a child in need of care and protection is produced before the Committee, which is the authority for that child, and which may order care, restoration to the family, foster care, sponsorship or institutional placement.

Section 2(14). The categories, which include a child found without any home or settled place of abode, a child living with a person who has threatened to kill, injure or harm the child, and a child who is being or is likely to be abused, tortured or exploited. That is [The Child in Need of Care and Protection].

The offences. Sections 75 to 89 of the Juvenile Justice Act, including cruelty to a child in section 75, employment of a child for begging in section 76, giving a child an intoxicating liquor or narcotic in section 77, using a child for vending or peddling in section 78, exploitation of a child employee in section 79, and corporal punishment in a child care institution in section 82.

And the Commissions. The National and State Commissions for Protection of Child Rights, which are also the monitoring authority under section 44 of POCSO and under the Right to Education Act, and which is [The Child Rights Commissions].

A worked example

A teacher notices that a child of nine has repeated bruises, is silent about them, and has begun to miss school. The child eventually says that her stepfather beats her and that he has touched her.

Does the teacher have to do anything? Yes. Section 19 of POCSO: any person with knowledge or apprehension of an offence under the Act SHALL inform the Special Juvenile Police Unit or the local police. Failure is punishable under section 21 with up to six months.

What about the beating alone? Section 75 of the Juvenile Justice Act punishes a person having actual charge of or control over a child who assaults, abandons, abuses or wilfully neglects the child in a manner likely to cause unnecessary mental or physical suffering.

How is her statement taken? Under section 24 of POCSO, at her residence or a place of her choice, as far as practicable by a woman sub-inspector NOT IN UNIFORM, without contact with the accused at any time, and with no detention at the police station at night; and under section 26, in the presence of a parent or a person she trusts.

What happens to her care? She is a child in need of care and protection under section 2(14) of the Juvenile Justice Act, and is produced before the Child Welfare Committee, which may order that she not be returned to the household.

At trial. The Special Court under section 28; the presumption under section 29; questions put through the court under section 33(2); no exposure to the accused under section 36; in camera under section 37; evidence within thirty days and trial within a year, so far as possible, under section 35.

And what the teacher must NOT do. Section 23 forbids the disclosure of the identity of the child in any media, and the school has no power to conduct its own inquiry in place of a report.

What this does NOT mean

It does not mean abuse is a poor household's problem. The causes above operate across income levels, and the studies find abuse at every level.

It does not mean corporal punishment is lawful at home. No Indian statute prohibits it in the home in terms, and section 75 reaches it where it causes unnecessary mental or physical suffering. Say the position accurately; it is often stated wrongly.

It does not mean the duty to report is costless. It cuts across medical confidentiality, and that cost falls hardest on adolescents.

And it does not mean the machinery reaches most cases. Under-reporting is the central fact, and no provision reaches a case that nobody reports.

Quick revision

Four forms: PHYSICAL, SEXUAL, EMOTIONAL and NEGLECT, with corporal punishment and economic exploitation added. Causes: poverty and household stress; the acceptance of physical punishment as discipline; the authority of a parent under personal law and custom; the invisibility of the household; the absence of any forum; and in institutions, the absence of inspection. Effects: physical injury and death; developmental and educational harm; anxiety, depression, post-traumatic symptoms and suicide risk; aggression and withdrawal; INTERGENERATIONAL transmission; and the cohort-level economic cost.

Under-reporting: the offender is known; shame and reputation; fear of the police station, answered by POCSO section 24, statement at the child's residence, by a woman sub-inspector NOT in uniform, no contact with the accused, no night detention; disbelief, answered by the section 29 presumption; and no duty on the bystander, answered by section 19.

Duty to report: POCSO section 19, ANY PERSON INCLUDING THE CHILD; section 20, media, hotel, lodge, hospital, club, studio and photographic facilities; section 21, failure to report, six months, and a child is not liable; section 22, false complaint, six months, and a child is not punishable. Machinery: Juvenile Justice Act section 2(14), sections 27 to 30 and the Child Welfare Committee; offences in sections 75 to 89; the Commissions under section 44 of POCSO.

Test yourself

1. Give the four forms of child abuse and one legal provision for each. Physical abuse, section 75 of the Juvenile Justice Act 2015; sexual abuse, sections 3 to 15 of POCSO; emotional abuse, section 75's reference to unnecessary MENTAL suffering; and neglect, section 2(14) of the Juvenile Justice Act, which makes such a child a child in need of care and protection.

2. State four causes of child abuse. Poverty and household stress, which produce crowding, insecurity and the absence of any alternative arrangement; the social acceptance of physical punishment as discipline; the authority over a child given by personal law and custom; and the invisibility of what happens inside a household, together with the absence of any forum a child can reach alone.

3. Which effect is most consistently reported, and why does it matter for policy? The intergenerational transmission of the pattern of parenting. It matters because intervention with an abused child is also prevention for the next generation, which is the strongest argument for spending on the machinery.

4. What does section 19 of POCSO require, and who is exempt? That any person, INCLUDING THE CHILD, who has apprehension that an offence under the Act is likely to be committed or knowledge that one has been committed shall inform the Special Juvenile Police Unit or the local police. Failure is punishable under section 21 with up to six months, but a child is not liable under that section.

5. What is the standing criticism of mandatory reporting? That it removes the confidentiality on which an adolescent's access to medical and counselling advice depends, so that a pregnant adolescent or one seeking treatment may avoid a hospital altogether. It is a genuine cost of the duty and it has no clean answer.