Stress on stringent laws to prevent child sex abuse

Anantapur: Amidst increasing cases of commercial sexual exploitation of children in the region, district officials, child protection units and civil society groups have joined hands to develop a strategy to deter the growing demand of children for commercial sexual abuse at a workshop organised by HELP, an NGO working against child sex trafficking in Andhra Pradesh, VIMUKTHI (Survivors Collective) and Girls Advocacy Alliance at IMA Hall here on Monday.

As per the state government records between 2015-2017, a total of 567 cases were filed under ITPA but only 7 cases saw convictions, a poor 1.2% conviction rate. Also, this period saw only 29 minors being rescued while civil society organisations working in rescuing and rehabilitation of minor victims of sexual exploitation estimate the actual numbers to be in thousands.

The reason for under-reporting can also be attributed to the factor that stringent laws like POCSO and ITPA were overlooked and hence no medical examination to confirm the age of victims is being conducted during the investigation, according to Rammohan, Secretary, HELP.

The policy experts at the consultation expressed fear that commercial sexual exploitation of children, has become more clandestine in the district where the ‘business’ has now moved into residential areas, hotels and lodges and the men, who buy sex from children are not arrested because the focus is always on traffickers.

The AHTU in-charge Lakshman said, “We must let ‘customers’ violating children know that Anantapur police and administration, with support of civil society members and media are closely watching them and no abuser will go unpunished”.

During the deliberations, the heart wrenching experiences retold by actual survivors of trafficking, helped the experts to propose stronger measures focusing on ways to strike a strong blow at the ‘demand side’ of the problem, by drying the ‘industry’ of its customers’.

N Rajeswari, a resource person stated that Andhra Pradesh has been the first Indian state to explore the idea of choking demand for commercial sexual exploitation and in its bid to fight the crime, the state will soon be introducing a new legislation which criminalises sex buying from the trafficked women and children.

The police officers and the district administration agreed that new law should focus on children, since they are pushed into prostitution and do not voluntary choose sex work. AP Police Academy DSP Srinivas, HANDS Director Narayana Swamy, victims along with 20 NGOs also participated.