{"id":6066,"date":"2021-09-21T11:51:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-21T06:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.matsio.com\/matsio\/i-probono.in\/?p=6066"},"modified":"2023-05-05T12:40:41","modified_gmt":"2023-05-05T07:10:41","slug":"jlsf-blog-caste-intersections-with-pocso","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.matsio.com\/matsio\/i-probono.in\/jlsf-blog-caste-intersections-with-pocso\/","title":{"rendered":"Caste Intersections With POCSO"},"content":{"rendered":"

Three incidents occurred in the Indian capital city of Delhi recently, within days of each other, which involved complex questions on how the criminal justice system, particularly the regime to protect children from sexual offences, intersects with caste oppression. These incidents point to the problem of how laws designed to address sexual violence may fail to account for the persisting complexities of caste and as a result, fail to ensure complete justice.<\/span><\/p>\n

The first <\/span>incident<\/span><\/a> is the gruesome gang rape and murder of a 9-year-old Dalit girl inside a crematorium, allegedly by four men, one of them a temple priest. The four accused are being investigated for rape, murder as well as offences under relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012 and the Prevention of Atrocities against Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes Act, 1989 (PoA). The second <\/span>incident<\/span><\/a> is where a Delhi sessions court acquitted a Dalit man of charges under POCSO, who had already spent 6 years in prison after the court found that he was falsely framed by the parents due to \u2018prejudicial disposition\u2019 owing to his caste. The court also awarded him compensation. In the third <\/span>incident<\/span><\/a>, a 13-year-old Dalit girl was raped and murdered by people who had employed her as a domestic worker. Other than sections of murder and criminal conspiracy, POCSO and PoA Act have also been invoked against the accused.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The three incidents diverge on the details but converge on the question of caste. The two incidents of sexual abuse of Dalit girls are symptomatic of the use of sexual violence as an instrument of caste oppression and the other exhibits how a stringent law like POCSO can be misused to inflict caste based oppression.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sexual violence, caste oppression and POCSO<\/b><\/p>\n

In 2020, a number of organisations and groups working on issues of caste oppression made a <\/span>submission<\/span><\/a> to the UN Special Rapporteur for violence against women on the issue of sexual violence perpetrated on Dalit women. The submission highlights that Dalit women find themselves at the receiving end of \u2018triple-fold violence, on the basis of caste, class and gender\u2019 and the criminal justice system is unable to cope. The report claimed that as per NCRB data, there was a 49.87% increase in incidents of rape of Dalit women from 2015 to 2019 and it also noted that young Dalit girls may be subjected to sexual violence in educational institutions, in retaliation for family or property disputes, or on false pretext of marriage by upper-caste men.<\/span><\/p>\n

Specifically with respect to the criminal justice system, the submission notes how despite stringent laws like POCSO and PoA, Dalit women face many barriers in their quest for justice. The report highlights a series of key issues:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n