Question : CASES REGISTERED UNDER POCSO ACT

(a) the total number of cases of child exploitation and sexual offences registered under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and the number of accused arrested, convicted and the action taken against the guilty persons during each of the last three years and the current year, crime and State-wise;

(b) whether the conviction rate is very low in the cases registered under the POCSO Act and if so, the reasons therefore along with the steps taken to improve the conviction rate;

(c) the number of victims who have been provided compensation under the said Act during the said period, State-wise;

(d) whether it is a fact that delay in setting of Special Courts has been the main reason for the low rate of conviction; and

(e) if so, the details thereof and the number of States who have set up Special Courts along with the steps taken to set up such courts in every State?

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS (SHRI HARIBHAI PARTHIBHAI CHAUDHARY)

(a): As per information provided by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), the collection of data under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012 has been started since January 2014. As per available data, a total of 2,086 cases were registered and 1,739 persons were arrested under POCSO Act during 2014 (upto October). State/UT wise provisional data on cases registered and persons arrested under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012 during 2014 (upto October) is enclosed at Annexure.

(b): The Act has been enacted only in 2012 and data collection has started from 2014 only and hence it will be premature to draw any conclusion in this regard.

(c): The disbursal of compensation is done by the State Governments and Union Territory Administrations. No data in this regard is maintained centrally.

(d) to (e): Conviction in a case is dependant on several factors like investigation, prosecution, witness etc. Hence it would be unfair to single out lower presence of special court as the sole reason for lower conviction rate. As per the information available, eighteen States/UTs have designated Special Courts/Children’s Court to try offences under the POSCO Act.