5 months ago
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In a first, much kid intersexual maltreatment cases successful a twelvemonth were disposed of than registered successful India, marking a tipping constituent successful tackling the long-standing judicial backlog nether the Protection of Children from Sexual Abuse (POCSO) Act, arsenic per a latest report.
The report, titled ‘Pendency to Protection: Achieving the Tipping Point to Justice for Child Victims of Sexual Abuse’, by the Centre for Legal Action and Behaviour Change (C-LAB) for Children, an inaugural of India Child Protection, courts crossed the state disposed of 87,754 POCSO cases successful 2025 against 80,320 caller registrations. This pushed the nationalist disposal complaint to 109%.
The study notes that 24 States and Union Territories recorded disposal rates supra 100%, enabling them to wide not lone caller cases but besides a information of older pending matters. Seven States and Union Territories achieved disposal rates exceeding 150%, portion different 7 recorded rates betwixt 121 and 150%. Ten States posted rates successful the scope of 100 to 120%.
Despite the progress, the study flags persistent structural concerns. India’s POCSO backlog stood astatine 2,62,089 cases until 2023, and astir fractional of each pending cases proceed to stay unresolved for much than 2 years. Conviction rates amusement wide fluctuations, and crisp inter-State disparities stay entrenched.
Uttar Pradesh unsocial accounts for 37% of each POCSO cases pending for much than 5 years, making it the largest contributor to semipermanent pendency. Maharashtra follows with 24% and West Bengal with 11%. Together, these 3 States relationship for astir three-fourths of cases that person remained unresolved for implicit 5 years.
These figures bespeak cases that entered the strategy respective years agone but person not seen meaningful progress, the study observes, adding that delays thin to accumulate aboriginal successful the lifecycle of a case, making timely solution progressively difficult.
To destruct the full backlog wrong 4 years, the study recommends mounting up 600 further e-POCSO courts crossed the country. It estimates that an allocation of ₹1,977 crore implicit 4 years would beryllium required and suggests that the Nirbhaya Fund could beryllium utilised for this purpose.
Purujit Praharaj, Director (Research) astatine India Child Protection, said the findings awesome a displacement from intent to impact. “India is present astatine a tipping constituent successful its effect to kid intersexual abuse. When the strategy begins to dispose of much POCSO cases than it registers, it starts reducing pendency alternatively than carrying it forward. Prolonged delays intensify trauma for kid survivors, and sustaining this momentum is indispensable if timely, child-centred justness is to go the norm,” helium said.
India Child Protection is simply a spouse of Just Rights for Children, a nationwide web of much than 250 non-governmental organisations moving crossed 451 districts connected kid extortion and kid rights.
The investigation is based connected information drawn from the National Judicial Data Grid, the National Crime Records Bureau and responses to Lok Sabha questions, arsenic disposable up to 2 December 2025.
