District Child Protection Unit (DCPU)

The unit set up by the State at district level under the Juvenile Justice Act, which maintains lists of support persons, interpreters and experts and coordinates services

Expert

A person trained in mental health, medicine, child development or another relevant discipline, who may be required to facilitate communication with a child whose ability to communicate is affected by disability or any other reason

Special educator

A person trained in communication with children with special needs, in a way that addresses the child's individual differences

Person familiar with the manner of communication of the child

A parent, family member or other person who knows how the child communicates, or is trained for it

Support person

A person assigned by the Child Welfare Committee to render assistance to the child through the process of investigation and trial, or any other person assisting the child in the pre-trial or trial process

§ Four duties of prevention

• Child safety education. The Central and State Governments are to prepare age-appropriate educational material and curricula informing children about personal safety, including their physical and virtual identity, emotional and mental wellbeing, how to report, and the sexual offences from which they are protected.

• Training and capacity building. Periodic training for police, medical personnel, teachers, Child Welfare Committee members, support persons and all others who deal with children, on the Act and on handling a child victim.

• Police verification and background checks. Any institution housing children or coming into regular contact with them, including schools, creches and sports academies, is to ensure periodic police verification and background checks of every staff member who comes into contact with the child.

• A child protection policy. The State Government is to formulate a child protection policy based on the principle of zero tolerance of violence against children, to be adopted by all institutions, organisations and agencies working with or coming into contact with children.

§ The role of the SJPU and local police after a report

Production before the Child Welfare Committee within twenty-four hours. Where the police receive information under Section 19(1) and have reason to believe the offence was committed or is likely to be committed by a person living in the same or shared household, or the child is living in a child care institution without parental support, or the child is without home and parental support, the child is to be produced before the Committee within twenty-four hours, with written reasons as to whether the child needs care and protection.

Informing the child and family: Form-A. The police must inform the child, the parents or guardian, or another trusted person about their entitlements and the services available to them, in Form-A.

The Preliminary Assessment Report: Form-B. The police must complete the Preliminary Assessment Report in Form-B within twenty-four hours of the registration of the FIR and submit it to the Committee.

§ The role of the Child Welfare Committee

• Assessment of need. The Committee, acting under its powers in Section 31(1) of the Juvenile Justice Act, determines whether the child needs to be taken out of the custody of the family or shared household and placed in a children's home or shelter home.

• The time limit. The Committee is to make this determination within three days.

• The child's voice. The Committee takes into account any preference or opinion expressed by the child, and the child's best interest, including the capacity of the family to protect the child and the child's need to remain with the family.

• Appointment of a support person. The Committee may, on its own or on request, appoint a support person to assist the child through the investigation and trial, and the child and family may ask for a change of support person.

§ The support person: role and duties

What the support person does. Provides the child with information, emotional and psychological support, and practical assistance; maintains the confidentiality of all information; coordinates with the police, doctors, the prosecutor and the court.

The child's right to information about proceedings. The support person keeps the child and family informed about the progress of the investigation, the dates of hearings, the availability of legal aid, compensation and other services, and the outcome of the case.

Reporting. The support person is to report to the Committee on the child's situation, including the child's health, education and the progress of the case, and the Supreme Court has read this as a monthly reporting duty.

Bachpan Bachao Andolan v. Union of India (2023). The Supreme Court noted that support persons had been appointed in only a small fraction of POCSO cases, held that their availability is not merely directory, and directed the authorities to frame guidelines for their appointment, qualifications and remuneration, and to ensure effective implementation.

§ Qualifications and duties

• Lists maintained at district level. The DCPU is to maintain a register of qualified interpreters, translators, special educators, experts and support persons, available to the police, the Magistrate and the Special Court.

• Interpreters and translators must be conversant in the child's language and in the language of the proceedings, and are engaged whenever the child's statement or evidence cannot otherwise be understood, as Sections 19(4), 26(2) and 38(1) contemplate.

• Special educators and experts assist where the child has a disability, under Sections 26(3) and 38(2).

• Duties common to all. They must render a faithful and accurate interpretation or assistance, remain impartial, and keep all information confidential.

• Fees. They are to be paid the prescribed fees from the funds available to the State, so that the child's family does not bear the cost.

§ Emergency care within twenty-four hours, and beyond

Within twenty-four hours. Where the SJPU or local police receive information that an offence has been committed and are satisfied that the child needs urgent medical care, they are to arrange for the child to be taken to the nearest hospital or medical care facility within twenty-four hours.

No legal precondition. No hospital or medical practitioner may demand any legal or magisterial requisition or other documentation as a precondition to emergency care, and the care is to be given without charge.

What emergency care covers. Treatment of injuries, protection against sexually transmitted infections including HIV, discussion of emergency contraception with the child and the parent or trusted person, and referral for further care, with all findings recorded.

Mental and psychological care. Where the child needs counselling or psychological support, the Committee and the support person are to ensure it is provided, and the practitioner is to refer the child to mental health services where necessary.

§ Immediate financial relief

The need. A child victim and family may need money at once: for food, clothes, transport and other essential needs, often before any compensation can be ordered.

The mechanism. The Child Welfare Committee may recommend immediate payment for these needs, to be made from funds available to the DLSA, the DCPU, or funds maintained under Section 105 of the Juvenile Justice Act.

Speed. The payment is to be made within a week of the Committee's recommendation.

Separate from compensation. Special relief is not a substitute for compensation under Rule 9 and does not reduce it.

Source of power

Section 33(8) of the Act: compensation for physical or mental trauma or immediate rehabilitation

Interim compensation

The Special Court may, on its own or on an application, order INTERIM compensation at ANY STAGE after registration of the FIR, to meet the child's needs for relief or rehabilitation; it is adjusted against final compensation

Final compensation

On conclusion of the case, the Special Court may award final compensation

Even without a conviction

Compensation may be awarded where the accused is CONVICTED, ACQUITTED or DISCHARGED, or where the accused is NOT TRACED OR IDENTIFIED, if the court is satisfied the child has suffered loss or injury

Payment

By the State Government from the Victims Compensation Fund or other scheme, within THIRTY DAYS of receipt of the order

In addition

Compensation is in addition to any other relief, and the child may still pursue other remedies

§ Factors for determining compensation

• The type of abuse, its gravity, and the severity of the physical and mental harm or injury suffered by the child.

• The expenditure incurred or likely to be incurred on medical treatment, physical and mental.

• Loss of educational opportunity because of the offence, including absence from school due to trauma, injury, medical treatment, investigation and trial.

• Loss of employment as a result of the offence, including absence from work of the child or the family.

• The relationship of the child to the offender, if any, and whether the abuse was a single incident or repeated over time.

• Whether the child became pregnant, or contracted a sexually transmitted disease or HIV as a result of the offence.

• Any disability suffered as a result of the offence, and the financial condition of the child against whom the offence was committed.

§ The fine reaches the child

Where the Special Court imposes a fine on conviction, it is to order that the fine be paid to the victim, consistently with Sections 4(3), 6(2) and the like, which require the fine to be just and reasonable and applied to the victim's medical expenses and rehabilitation.

Recovery. The fine is recovered in the manner the law provides, and the Special Court monitors that it reaches the child.

§ How material is reported, and by whom

• Any person who has received any pornographic material involving a child, or any information regarding such material being stored, possessed, distributed, circulated, transmitted, facilitated, propagated or displayed, or likely to be, is to report it.

• The routes. To the Special Juvenile Police Unit, the local police, or the cyber-crime portal (cybercrime.gov.in).

• Action on the report. The SJPU or local police act on the report, and where it concerns electronic material, take steps with the intermediary concerned.

• Duties of online intermediaries. Where the report is made by an intermediary, it must also hand over the necessary material, including the source from which the material may have originated, to the SJPU or local police.

• The report must not spread the material. Details of the device or platform are given; the material itself is not forwarded.

• The link to Section 15. Reporting through Rule 11 is the lawful course that takes a person outside Section 15(1), which punishes retaining such material without deleting or reporting it, with intent to share.

§ NCPCR and SCPCR monitoring

The Commissions monitor, under Section 44 of the Act, the designation of Special Courts by the State Governments; the appointment of Special Public Prosecutors; the formulation of guidelines under Section 39; the design and implementation of modules for training of police, medical, legal and other personnel; and the dissemination of information about the Act under Section 43.

Monitoring of Special Courts and prosecutors. The Commissions may call for reports on specific cases from the Special Courts and others, to assess how cases are handled, including delay and the child-friendly procedure.

Data and reports. The Commissions collect data on reported cases, their disposal, and the services provided, and include their activities in their annual reports.

The SOP direction. In Bachpan Bachao Andolan (2023), the Supreme Court emphasised a reliable reporting mechanism, with the Committees' reports, including on support persons, reaching the State Commission for regular review.

Form-A: Entitlements of the child victim

A written statement to the child and family of their ENTITLEMENTS and the SERVICES available under the Act and other law: medical care, a support person, legal aid, special relief, compensation, protection of identity, and the child-friendly procedure

The SJPU or local police give it to the child and parents or trusted person, under Rule 4

Form-B: Preliminary Assessment Report

A report on the child's situation and immediate needs: care and protection, medical, psychological, educational and financial, and the family and household circumstances relevant to safety

The SJPU or local police complete it WITHIN 24 HOURS of the FIR and submit it to the Child Welfare Committee