On 23 Ap, the Sindh Assembly amending the Sindh Child Protection Authority Act, 2011 enacted the Sindh Child Protection Authority (Amendment) Act, 2021. The objective of the amendment was to make the concerned authority law more effective so that the interest of the children is protected all over the province. Although the enactment of the SCPA Act, 2021 is a commendable initiative of the government but due to its intricacies it is unlikely to be effectively executed to achieve the desired results.
The SCPA Act, 2011 did not cover any preventive and curative measures for the multitudinous crimes against children including rape, trafficking, abduction or killing and was also ineffectual to curb the menace. Therefore, it was deemed expedient in the public interest to make an appropriate amendment in this Act. The main purpose of bringing about this momentous legal change was to have a system of raising alertness for the rights of children in conformity with the fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution of Pakistan and in adherence to national and international laws and obligations including the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Child (UNCRC).
To achieve productive fruits from the 2021 Act, the Sindh government will have to make concrete and positive efforts for the implementation of the law. For the larger public interest, the government should shoulder responsibility to ensure the provision of justice to the vulnerable portion of our society and their protection from all forms of abuse
According to the Section 2 (a-i) of the SCPA Act,2021, psychological, physical and sexual violence, exploitation, compromising economic exploitation and sexual exploitation which includes child marriage, domestic or commercial child labour, child trafficking, corporal punishment, injury, and maltreatment fall in the purview of child abuse.
Section 20-B of this Act affirms that the child abuse is a cognizable and non-bailable offence. In reality, this makes the implementation of this Act a challenging and daunting task to prevent child abuse as many well off or influential people, and politicians, are involved in some acts of the offence.
Under Section 10 (q-i) of the Act, the authority will facilitate and ensure the registration of an FIR with the police or any law enforcement agency, in relation to any child in need of special protection measures within four hours of the occurrence of the criminal offence. Moreover, it will be obligatory for the police or any law enforcement agency to lodge the FIR on receipt of such a complaint by any person or the authority’s representative.
No doubt, this will help increase the ratio of the reported cases as many cases of alleged child abuse are not reported to police due to numerous reasons, but this will not ensure the dispensation of justice to the victim and punishment to the perpetrator. In the court, there will be no person to pursue the cases reported to the police by the SCPA officials. Parents, who are reluctant to register the FIR, will not pursue these cases. Thus, many of the culprits will go unpunished.
Under Section 20A (2), no report in any newspaper and magazine will disclose the name, address or any other particulars which will lead to the identification of the abused child and nor any picture of any such child may be published. In reality, this is a praiseworthy feature of the Act, 2021. Generally, it has been seen that children, especially girls, who have been made victims of sexual abuse, experience social and psychological difficulties and agonies in a society after their identification is revealed. The fact is that the victims have the rights to privacy and dignity of life. So, it is the social and moral responsibility of a society to respect their rights.
Under Section 20D of the Act, the special courts will be set-up in each district of the province to provide the victimized children with protection and expeditious justice. After the special courts are established, all the cases falling under this Act pending in any court will be transferred to the special courts for trial. The court shall proceed with the trial from day to day and shall decide the case within four months.
I would suggest that to make the special courts productive, result-oriented and child-friendly, lawyers, prosecutors and judges in these courts should be females. Moreover, police officers and medico-legal officers dealing with child abuse cases should also be females. Significantly, the child abuse victims are to be provided with free legal aid.
Child abuse is on the rise in Pakistan. Sahil, a NGO, in its six-months cruel number report 2020 revealed that, with 14 percent increase, the number of child abuse cases reported from January to June this year stands at 1489 out of which 53 percent were girls and 47 percent boys. It means that eight children were abused every day during these six months. Of the overall cases, 32 percent of them were reported from Sindh. It means that Sindh has been plagued enormously more than all other provinces by crimes against children. Although to protect the rights of children, a spate of pro-children laws have been enacted by the government, the data shows an upturn in upsetting offences of child abuse in the province. The lack of a robust implementation mechanism has rendered these laws ineffective.
To achieve productive fruits from the 2021 Act, the Sindh government will have to make concrete and positive efforts for the implementation of the law. For the larger public interest, the government should shoulder responsibility to ensure the provision of justice to the vulnerable portion of our society and their protection from all forms of abuse.
The writer tweets @ARShykh OI
