New Delhi, Aug 17: Victims of child abuse need not
undergo the trauma of repeated appearance in court in future,
as the government is contemplating enforcing a comprehensive
guideline for dealing with cases.
The draft guidelines prepared by a committee set up by
the Women and Child Development Ministry also proposes that
victims can only be examined in the presence of a known
person.
"We hope that the guidelines provide a clear picture to
states on how to deal with such cases. The guidelines are
prepared in such a way that it addresses the sensitivity of
the victim," Union Women and Child Development Minister Renuka
Chaudhury said.
The minister said there exist "ambiguities" in dealing
with child abuse victims and hoped that the new guidelines
would act as an yardstick for states.
"Among other things, the guidelines proposes that the
victim should be called to the court only once for recording
her statement and that should be an in-camera process," she
said.
These victims sometimes have to go to court more than
50 times and they are "forced to relive the trauma all the
time ... We thought of ending it and came out with these draft
guidelines", Chaudhury said.
Separate instructions will also be issued to schools to
deal with such cases and the precaution to be taken to avoid
such incidents, she added.
The ministry's decision to frame guidelines for dealing
with child abuse comes in the wake of a case of a teacher
allegedly sodomising a student for over an year in the
capital.
Bureau Report
First Published: Friday, August 17, 2007, 00:00