Pocso is hurting young people in love. Review it
Aslew of recent judgments on using the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (Pocso) in cases involving adolescents has affirmed well-established scientific, anthropological and sociological studies while acknowledging the complexities of being a young person. This understanding of adolescence, however, seems to have escaped the legislature’s thinking, which continues to look at them through a regulatory and punitive lens. Infantilising young people under the guise of protection from exploitation sabotages their ability to engage in later healthy socialisation with ensuing repercussions.
Take a recent case from rural Tamil Nadu in September. A 16-year-old boy tied a thread around his 16-year-old girlfriend’s neck as a token of affection at a bus stand. A video capturing this moment went viral. It soon came to the attention of district officials, who initiated action against the boy, leading to the filing of a Pocso case. The teenagers were brought to the police station; the girl was sent to a government facility as the “victim”, and the boy to an observation home as the “accused”. Both faced humiliating medical tests.
This case is one among thousands clogging adjudication under the act, which was envisaged to provide sensitive and expeditious resolution. Right from the time a case is brought to the notice of the authorities, it traverses interventions of civil society, police, the health sector, child protection services and judicial systems. At every stage, there is a significant expenditure of time, money, energy and human resources. Not to forget the short-, medium- and longterm losses weathered by all parties, involving their mental health, education, livelihood, and, for some, their homes. If each process were to be quantified, it would run into lakhs of rupees per case. These cases, usually end in acquittal because many of them are consensual, and come at the cost of resources required for those victims for whom Pocso was envisaged.
Several studies have observed that despite taboos in India, young people engage in romantic relationships. In 2010, the IIPS study on Youth in India (conducted in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu), indicated that a considerably large proportion of youth initiated relationships at a young age.
What is the impact of the law and its implementation on young people who find themselves in its crosshairs while trying to navigate the turbulence that comes with adolescence? Our sociocultural milieu does not allow them to explore their relationship boundaries positively, resulting in warped understandings. Such implementation of the law only legitimises this culture of shame and secrecy around intimacy.
Furthermore, it is mainly young people from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds who are targeted under the law. Shouldn’t they also be allowed to experience adolescence in its full expression, just as those whose privilege allows them to afford romance in malls and cafés? This truth is stark and smacks of classism.
Since Pocso considers that anyone below 18 can only be a victim of sexual exploitation, irrespective of gender (another bias hidden in plain sight), boys and young men are often singled out as the ones in conflict with the law. Perhaps, a young woman is not considered capable of exercising her sexuality. Technology has flattened the world, and teens everywhere are exposed to similar content, making these biases even more baseless.
In the current scenario, this calls for a middle path where adolescent behaviour is recognised and sensitive implementation within the framework of the law is done. To prevent these relationships from facing the unwarranted harshness of the criminal justice system, the police in the South Zone of Tamil Nadu, while registering such cases, follow a humanised approach by not resorting to blind apprehension of the boy or young man involved. This is only done after due diligence of the facts and circumstances by senior officers.
Adults must live up to their responsibilities and obligations towards young people by proactively understanding and enabling their well-being. Government programmes such as the Rashtriya Kishor Swasthya Karyakram — which strives to provide accurate information on sexuality and relationships and seek to guide young people during this exciting-yetconfusing time — should be widely and effectively implemented. Rather than being amnesic of adolescence, we must ask whether the law lulls us into a false sense of moral security by criminalising adolescent consent.