Staff Reporter
Dimapur, August 30 (EMN): In India 97% of the rapists do not spend a year in jail, 54% cases of sexual offences go unreported while in Nagaland most of such cases are settled between the two parties or through customary manner, said legal aid counsel cum trainer of Nagaland State Legal Service Authority (NSLSA), Esther K Aye, at the one day workshop cum consultative meet on Juvenile Justice System organised by Dimapur District Legal Service Authority (DDLSA) with stakeholders on Wednesday in Dimapur.
Drawing attention on the procedure for media reporting on sexual cases, Aye defended that under Section 23 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act 2012 ‘no person shall make any report or present comments on any child from any form of media without having complete and authentic information.’
‘No reports in any media shall disclose the details of a child which may lead to disclosure of the child’s identity. The publisher or owner of the media/ studio/ photographic facilities shall be jointly and severely liable for the acts of his employee,’ she cautioned.
Aye, emphasising on the Juvenile Justice (JJ) Act, 2015, underlined that the State was yet to implement it after the repeal of JJ Act 2000. Taking opportunity with the presence of police officials at the workshop, Aye detailed the guidelines for police officials dealing with ‘children in need of care and protection’ and ‘children in conflict with law’ wherein she reminded that a police officer while dealing with both should be fully aware of the Child Welfare Committee(s) and should always be in plain clothes even during recording the statement of the child victim.
“A child victim should not be kept in the police station overnight on any pretext,” said Aye adding a child in conflict with law is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty according to law and should not be compelled to confess guilt.
Two resource persons including DDLSA panel lawyers, Sentimenla, and the District Child Protection Officer, Pikato Muru, laid emphasise on JJ Act 2015. Sentimenla, while presuming Nagaland to be a destination of human child trafficking, said more efforts is needed to control trafficking and bring a solution to this menace.
She further suggested trafficked victims to share their ordeal to create awareness for those gullible victims of human trafficking market.
Director of Prodigals’ Home, K Ela, sharing concern over the rise of child rights violation, pointed out the Naga society is still hostile including the service providers who act insensitively, while the NGOs dealing with such cases face challenges of working in a hostile environment.
‘Though the State stakeholders talk on the available laws and acts in concern with children, those acts and laws are never executed and the compensation intended for victims under implemented laws and acts are always in the process-which means the victims’ right is violated,’ said Ela.
She also suggested for a district child friendly court and implementation of child friendly policy in schools to make Dimapur child friendly.
