PTI, NEW DELHI: The Centre is planning to amend the POCSO Act to provide justice to male child victims of sexual assault, the Women and Child Development Ministry said, days after an ordinance promulgated by President Ram Nath Kovind provided the death penalty for rape of girls under the age of 12.
“The government has always strived to develop gender neutral laws. Government has proposed amendment in the POCSO Act to seek justice for survivors of child sexual abuse,” it said on its official Twitter handle on Thursday.
WCD Minister Maneka Gandhi recently supported a petition on Change.org by filmmaker-activist Insia Dariwala, who said “male child sexual abuse is an ignored reality in India”.
Replying to the petition, she said a first-of-its-kind study on male survivors of child sexual abuse would be conducted.
“Another much neglected sphere of child sexual abuse is male survivors. Child sexual abuse is gender neutral. Boys who are sexually abused as children spend a lifetime of silence because of the stigma and shame attached to male survivors speaking out. It is a serious problem and needs to be addressed,” she said in her response on the campaign website.
Gandhi said following the petition, she had in September 2017 instructed the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) to look into the issue.
