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The Government of India has implemented the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act in 2012. It is a special law that treats everyone under the age of 18 as a child and lays down stringent punishment for anybody who commits sexual abuse or sexual assault against a child. As per the POCSO Act, any form of sexual abuse or sexual assault ranging from usage or storage of pornographic material involving a child to non-physical sexual activities, aggravated sexual assault and aggravated penetrative sexual assault are criminal offences. The punishment is up to three years of imprisonment. A notable provision of the law is that it also considers failure to report a case, as a punishable offense. Punishment for this is six months of imprisonment or a fine or both.
Another distinctive feature of the POCSO Act is that it is gender-neutral, recognizing that boys can also be victims of sexual assault. The POCSO Act has attempted to make the judicial process child-friendly in all its aspects – from reporting and recording of evidence to investigation and trial of offences.
To ensure the effective implementation of the POCSO Act, the Government of India has published plenty of resources that are available to the general public