When Courts Turn Child-Friendly: A New Path for POCSO Justice

In January this year, a child in Gujarat’s Rajkot was asked to identify her rapist. Scared and alone, the child was visibly traumatised. Fortunately, the Magistrate immediately sensed her fear and refused to make the child go through the ordeal again. What she did left everyone in the courtroom puzzled. She set aside her magistrate robe and stepped down from her seat of justice in pursuit of real justice. She turned into the child’s playmate, and the courtroom into a ‘playroom’. The cops too joined in as the child rode a toy train in the corridors of the court. Once the child was at ease, she was able to identify the accused, leading to a death sentence.

Just a month later, another case from Uttar Pradesh made national headlines. A couple was awarded the death sentence for sexually abusing 33 minor boys and selling their explicit videos and photos online globally over a period of ten years. Charges against them included unnatural offences, aggravated penetrative sexual offences, and criminal conspiracy, among others. The victims said that both ‘uncle’ and ‘aunty’ would lure them with online video games, chocolates, and gifts.

Together, these cases reveal both the gravity of the threat and the scale of sexual abuse. At the same time, they also show that despite the horrific reality, there are pathways to justice and deterrence. But before we speak of solutions, we must confront the enormity of the problem.

How Deep is the Problem?*

At the end of 2023, 2,62,089 POCSO cases were pending in courts across India. Of these, 1,20,444 had been pending for two years or more. Behind each number is a child and a family that has most likely endured stigma, intimidation, and social backlash simply for seeking justice. The reality that lakhs of such children are still waiting for closure should be deeply troubling.

Yet, between 2023 and 2025, important systemic shifts have begun to reflect in the data. According to a report by the Centre for Legal and Behaviour Change for Children (C-LAB), 80,320 POCSO cases were instituted across the country in 2025, while 87,874 were disposed of during the same period. For the first time in years, disposals outpaced new filings. It is a cautious but significant sign of progress. The challenge now lies in sustaining this momentum and improving conviction rates.

The Story Behind the Numbers

In many cases, family pressure, social fatigue, and the burden of prolonged trials push families to withdraw. This is not resolution, but a quiet collapse of faith in the system, and it must be addressed.

In Just Rights for Children Alliance v. S Harish (2024), the Supreme Court recognised the complex and evolving nature of child sexual exploitation and called for a systemic framework that goes beyond prosecution to emphasise prevention and coordination.

In an earlier ruling, the Apex Court had also made the presence of support persons mandatory in child sexual abuse cases. These individuals can guide families through the legal process, counsel the child, and ensure that they are not left to navigate the system alone. Often, they are the difference between a case falling apart and a child seeing it through.

Organisations such as Just Rights for Children have played a significant role in strengthening these support systems on the ground, working in coordination with law enforcement, government agencies, and communities. The network, along with other stakeholders in the ecosystem, have helped connect vulnerable families to welfare schemes, bring children back into education, and assist in identifying and responding to cases of abuse.

Just as the judge in Rajkot stepped beyond convention to make the child feel safe, just as Just Rights for Children is steadily and urgently bringing in the change and the amends, the larger system too must adopt a more responsive and humane approach. A child who has already lost trust in the world should not be made to lose it again in the pursuit of justice.

What these developments show is that the solutions are not absent. They exist within the system itself, in the form of judicial sensitivity, stronger legal frameworks, and coordinated institutional response. The challenge is not invention, but implementation.

Justice for children does not demanding extraordinary measures, but consistent ones. It lies in making the system humane, responsive, and accountable at every step. The question is no longer whether solutions exist, but whether we are willing to act on them before more children are forced to wait for a justice that should never have been delayed.

(This article is authored by Indrajeet Chauhan, Prayas JAC Society, Gujarat State Coordinator)