The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Special courts needed to deal with child abuse cases: Chief Justice

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Aug 11, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Special courts needed to deal with child abuse cases: Chief Justice

Special Correspondent

Project launched to help in building a safe environment for children

CHENNAI: It is imperative that the present provisions of criminal laws, inadequate to deal with child abuse cases, be amended and special courts are established to deal exclusively with cases relating to child sexual abuse and exploitation, Justice A.P. Shah, Chief Justice, Madras High Court, said.

The special court should also be endowed with the power to grant protection orders where there was reasonable apprehension that a child was vulnerable and was likely to be abused or exploited.

Mr. Justice Shah also advocated a joint investigating team comprising a police officer, medical doctor and psychiatrist to deal with child abuse cases. The court should not go into the question of the competence of the child as witness. Sensitive judges should man these special courts, he said. Speaking at the launch of the "It Takes a Community to Protect a Child" project in Chennai on Wednesday, Mr.Justice Shah spoke about the need to introduce inter-disciplinary and inter-agency work to protect children from abuse.

"Our laws, policies and schemes need to be re-looked at and harmonised with the (UN) Convention on the Rights of the Child," he stressed.

Safety programme

The project, jointly launched by the UNICEF and Tulir - Centre for the Prevention and Healing of Child Sexual, aims at promoting a safe environment for children in Tamil Nadu's tsunami hit areas in terms of protection from violence and abuse, including child sexual abuse.

In addition to facilitating district-level capacity building among NGOs in five districts, a personal safety programme will be imparted to nearly 10,000 children.

UNICEF support

The UNICEF will also support the State Judicial Academy to orient judges on issues of child abuse and protection.

Speaking on the occasion, Thomas George of UNICEF, said the project, to be implemented with the involvement of government departments, would help build a safe environment for children. "Creating this protective environment is the best chance we have of safeguarding all children," he added. R. Natraj, ADGP, Human Rights, said the perception among the police force that protection of a child's rights was a peripheral issue must be altered. The police had a big role to play in preventing crimes against children. He outlined the various initiatives taken by the department in adopting a child-friendly attitude.

Vidya Reddy, Vipin Thekkekalathil and Alankar of Tulir made presentations on the various dimensions of child sexual abuse.

N.S. Palaniappan, Secretary, Social Welfare, M. Kutralingam, Secretary, Higher Education and Geetha Ramaseshan, trustee, Tulir, spoke.

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