Trafficked children get their day in court
CHILD FRIENDLY FACILITIES AIM TO LESSEN THEIR TRAUMA
Radha was just 13 when she had to testify in open court against the people who trafficked her into prostitution, as a defence lawyer bombarded her with questions — why didn’t she try to kill herself? Or run away? Frightened, Radha attempted to reply, but the judge quickly shut the lawyer down.
“I was getting scared with the questions. I was trying to reply when the judge intervened,” said Radha, whose full name has been withheld.
“The judge told the lawyer his questions were inappropriate, that I was a small girl. She told me to speak without fear. I felt better after that. I was no longer scared.”
Trafficking victims in India have long faced similar ordeals — if their case gets to court at all. But Radha’s case, which ended in conviction and a 10year sentence for her traffickers, was unusual.
COSY ENVIRONMENT
It was tried in one of India’s first child friendly courts in Beed, in the western state of Maharashtra, set up as part of a push to reduce the trauma victims face during trials.
The court is cosy, with sofas arranged in a square around a coffee table and a television on the wall, with an adjoining room with brightly painted walls, toys, chocolates and a bed where victims can rest.
A series of orders by the Supreme Court, a 2015 government directive to make it easier for victims to bring cases and a 2012 child protection law have all helped make the legal system more victim friendly.
Ravi Kant of Delhi-based anti-trafficking charity Shakti Vahini said there had been a “visible change” in the way courts handled cases, though progress was patchy.
“Earlier, victims were asked intimate details of what happened. The questioning lasted long hours when the defence lawyers would raise their voice,” he said. “The victims would then give contradictory answers to questions asked to confuse them such as the trafficker’s shirt colour. We saw more acquittals than convictions.”
SEPARATE CUBICLE
In recent years, courts have handed rare life sentences to traffickers, denied them bail, recorded victim testimonies on video conference and in some cases ordered compensation for victims even before the trial was over.
Courts in Hyderabad and Delhi have made infrastructure changes to ensure victims do not face the accused in court, while defence lawyers are not allowed to make victims uncomfortable during questioning. In Mumbai — Maharashtra’s capital — courts trying cases of sex crimes against children now have a separate cubicle where the victim’s testimony is recorded.
The 2012 Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act guarantees child victims anonymity and a sensitive hearing in court and provides for harsher punishment to offenders.
In Beed, conviction rates have doubled to about 60 per cent following the court reforms, said Prachi Kulkarni, principal and district judge of Beed court.
“We were the first in Maharashtra to make the changes, second only to Delhi,” said Kulkarni proudly.