‘Support persons’ assist the victims of child sexual abuse and their families throughout the investigation and trial of the cases, but their role does not end there. They also play a vital role in the empowerment of victims through rehabilitation measures— empowerment that reflects in other aspects of their lives as well.
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THE Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Rules, 2020 define a ‘support person’ as someone assigned by a child welfare committee to render assistance to a child during the process of investigation and trial, or any other person assisting a child pre-trial or during the process of a trial pertaining to the offences under the POCSO Act, 2012.
The Rules define the role and enumerate the responsibilities of a support person, but not exhaustively.
The Leaflet spoke with seven support persons who work at HAQ: Centre for Child Rights, as well as advocate Persis Sidhva, director of Rati Foundation— which works to create sexual violence-free spaces and communities for children— to understand the role and responsibilities of support persons.
Intervention by support persons
Sidhva explained that in a case of child sexual abuse, the victim has to interact with multiple stakeholders at different stages of the intervention— visiting the police station, undergoing medical examination, recording statement under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) before the magistrate, submitting documents for receiving compensation, interacting with the public prosecutor, and attending bail hearings in court— and there is a need for one person to hold together all the threads for the victim during that period. Support persons perform that role.
Support persons also take care of other aspects like linking the victim for mental health support; ensuring medical support; making provisions of education, vocational training and admission in a shelter home; and performing basic documentation to help the victim open a bank account for receiving compensation, she explained.
The requirement for support persons to submit a monthly report to the Child Welfare Committee (CWC), under Rule 4(12) of the POCSO Rules, helps bring clarity to their role, Sidhva asserted.
The members of HAQ explained that their major intervention lies in making sure the child is rehabilitated through a thorough assessment.
Giving instances of such coordination, HAQ elaborated that they coordinate with investigating officers (IOs) to get legal updates on the case and when there is a threat to the family, in filing for witness protection with the help of the DCW lawyers or a private lawyer as the case may be.
Support persons also coordinate with public prosecutors or lawyers appointed by the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) (in cases emanating from the Delhi jurisdiction) for filing applications for compensation, and with the victims and their families to record testimonies.
The members of HAQ explained that through an assessment or home visit, if the support person forms an opinion that the victim is not safe in the home environment or the parents are not able to take care of the child, the support person coordinates with the CWC to admit the child to a shelter home.
Support persons also coordinate with the CWC in the opposite direction, i.e., when the victim is in a childcare institution and needs to be reunited with their family.
Appointment process
Section 19(6) of the POCSO Act makes it mandatory for the police to report a matter of child abuse to the CWC within 24 hours of receiving information about it. According to Rule 4(4) of the POCSO Rules, the police are required to produce the child before CWC in certain situations— when the accused lives in the same household as the victim, or when the child is in a childcare institution and without any parental support, or the child is homeless.
Also read: Mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse offences: Call for reform in the POCSO Act
As provided under Rule 4(8), once the CWC receives a report of the offence from the police, the CWC may appoint a support person with the consent of the child and the child’s parent or guardian. However, according to the members of HAQ, the process of appointing support persons has become mechanical.
They explained that although the law mandates that support persons may be appointed with the consent of the child and the family, a support person is appointed without taking such consent and providing any such information of the appointed support person to the family members.
Once the case has been set in motion, several stakeholders approach the victim’s family, including the police, the IO, the district legal services authority (DLSA), counsellors and other social workers, which causes a dilemma for the family over who to trust, they said.
The member of HAQ also explained that there are cases where the families do not wish to pursue the case in a court or do not wish to engage a support person, particularly in romantic cases and cases of elopement.
Also read: The need for revisiting the age of consent under the POCSO Act
Thus, when the CWC fails to take the consent of the families before appointing support persons, it leads to the support persons spending a considerable time trying to contact the family only to find out that they do not wish to pursue the case.
One of the HAQ members opined, “An assessment by the CWC can ensure efforts of the support persons are directed to cases where they are needed.”
Huge burden of cases
As per the members of HAQ, very few organisations work as support persons, which means there is a huge burden of cases on the few organisations that do work in the sector— four–five cases are referred to HAQ on a daily basis.
They noted that while it is the duty of the district child protection unit (DCPU) to prepare a list of support persons that could include persons working in the field of child rights, officials of children’s homes and members of organisations such as Childline, no such list is prepared. Thus, the entire work of support persons is left to the non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
They raised the concern that while the concept of support persons has evolved over the years in Delhi, in other cities support persons are still not appointed in any of the cases involving child sexual abuse.
According to Sidhva, being a support person involves the kind of involvement only people with organisational infrastructure can provide. Even within an organisation, different people are engaged in different capacities, she added.
She emphasised that since the goal is to ensure a maximum number of children have access to support persons, there needs to be a clear understanding of their role.
“It is important to not make the role very expansive so that it is attainable, while also not compromising on the quality of intervention, ” she added.
Incest cases
The support persons delved into the challenges of incest cases, that is, where the father, stepfather or brother are the accused while also being the sole earning member of the family.
The support persons explained that in such cases there are attempts by family members, particularly the mother of the victim, to release the accused on bail. Under such circumstances, the child needs to be admitted to a childcare institution, risking damaging the emotional bond between the child and the mother.
“In trying to ensure justice for the child, the child ends up being separated from their mother,” they shared.
The members of HAQ pointed out that although under Rule 4(11) of the POCSO Rules, services of support persons can be withdrawn if the victim and her family so wish, in cases where the victim is admitted to a shelter home and the mother is not supportive of the case, on discussion with the CWC and the DCW-appointed lawyer, the support persons can continue their role.
Compensation
Under Section 33(8) of the POCSO Act, the special court is empowered to direct payment of compensation to the victim for the physical or mental trauma, or for immediate rehabilitation.
According to Rule 9(1) of the POCSO Rules, the special court can grant interim compensation to meet the needs of the child for relief or rehabilitation after filing of the first information report (FIR), which is to be adjusted against the final compensation.
The support persons at HAQ remarked that the struggle to receive the compensation starts after the court passes the Order of compensation for the child.
Also read: Delhi High Court enhances mandatory compensation payable to survivors of child sexual abuse
They pointed out that after the Order of compensation is forwarded to the DLSA, a bank account to receive the compensation money, as well as documents such as Aadhar card and PAN card are needed.
They stated that several of the victims and their families do not have the documents or the means to open a bank account needed to receive compensation. In some cases, obtaining such documents takes years, particularly when there is no other address proof and the victim’s family resides in jhuggis (slums).
Such obstacles deprive the victim of the compensation money when it is most needed, particularly interim compensation for education. Thus, even after conviction, the final compensation remains pending due to the non-availability of formal documents.
An assessment of the child’s needs by the support person allows the court to pass appropriate directions relating to final or interim compensation, members of HAQ averred.
Psychological assessment
The members of HAQ explained that they undertake a psychological assessment of the victim to understand the extent of their trauma. Based on such an assessment, the support person can recommend counselling or special care and education for the child.
Also read: Palghar minor gangrape case: 10 years of POCSO Act; child safety still a distant dream
If the public prosecutor, the DWC-appointed lawyer for the victim or the defence lawyer is not aware of the psychological assessment of the child, the child could be subjected to rigorous questioning, without considering their special needs, the members of HAQ cautioned.
Thus, the support person helps to bring to the court’s notice the psycho-social status of the child and the consequential need to assign a special educator or sign language interpreter, or for other measures in accordance with the special needs of the child, they added.
Recognition from stakeholders
According to Sidhva, earlier, although organisations were helping victims of child sexual abuse, they lacked the locus standi and were not accepted by the system.
“However, now, an Order of a statutory body like the CWC gives legitimacy to the work that the support persons do,” she said.
She added, “While the acceptance may be there from the CWC who assign the support persons, the stakeholders, including the police, the prosecutors and the defence lawyers still look at the role of support persons with suspicion.”
The members of the HAQ explained that the police recognise support persons when the affiliation of the support person with the CWC is highlighted and the provision of POCSO Rules.
They lamented that even though the police are mandated to inform the special court about the appointment of a support person, they often fail to do so, because of which the courts question the presence of the support person during the testimony of the victim, and the support person has to explain their role and the reason for their presence in the court.
Ensuring linkages between the CWC, which assigns a support person, and the court would allow the judges to direct the support person to file a rehabilitation plan or counselling report of the child, they shared.
The way forward
The members of HAQ stressed the need for continuous communication between the stakeholders to understand the needs of the child and ensure that the need for and existence of support persons is recognised.
They highlighted that laws pertaining to the protection of the rights of children allow creativity for the stakeholders. Thus, instead of waiting for the IO to inform the court about the support person, the information on the details of the support person pertaining to a case can be directly passed by the CWC to the court, they said.
Also read: Ten years of POCSO Act: Conflicting stands by different high courts raise key concerns
According to them, there needs to be coordination between the DLSA and the banks to ease the requirement of documents for the purpose of opening bank accounts for the victims to receive compensation on time.
They also stressed on the need for better coordination with and recognition from the police, which can help in receiving timely legal updates, including the information on bail hearing of the accused.
Furthermore, they shared that stakeholders need to be sensitised about the cases of child sexual abuse to understand the perspective of the victim and their families in their approach to the cases.
The members of HAQ emphasised on the need for training of the support persons, particularly since support persons must be aware of laws on the rights of children, namely the POCSO Act, the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 (JJAct), the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986, and possess working knowledge of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), 1973 and other relevant laws.
They also noted the need for training of support persons regarding various schemes for the benefit of children in order to link the victims to the scheme.
Conclusion
The support persons provide sustained assistance throughout the long pendency of the cases. Without such support, the victims, unaware of their rights, are likely to turn hostile or fail to give quality testimony in courts.
Besides providing support during the investigation and trial, the support persons at HAQ describe their role as “sustainable”, which empowers the victims and their families.
