However, the police have arrested a duo for assault and Cabinet minister Chandrakant Patil has promised action under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act
Following the national outrage over a viral video of two 14-year-old Dalit boys from Wakdi village in North Maharashtra's Jalgaon district being stripped naked, paraded and beaten up for swimming in a well owned by an 'upper caste' family, many experts and activists have raised questions on why no offence was registered under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
However, the police have arrested a duo for assault and Cabinet minister Chandrakant Patil has promised action under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
PI S Patond who is conducting investigations accepted that the current chargesheet has nothing under POCSO. "But this can be added at a later stage too if the investigation suggests it is needed," he offered. "We are taking this case very seriously and stringently following all rules. No guilty person will be spared."
Human rights expert and law faculty at Pune's ILS College Dr Nitish Nawsagaray said, "These are young children, the fact that they were stripped and paraded naked in a bid to outrage their modesty and humiliate them can't be overlooked. It is a gross lapse of the police administration not to invoke POCSO Act."
Internationally acclaimed anti-trafficking activist Dr Pravin Patkar, whose organisation Prerana, recently conducted a study looking at four years of POCSO Act, pointed out how the lapse by local police underlines what the study (DNA had published on ) had pointed out. "Not only do authorities have a poor understanding of POCSO but they also show an acute lack of sensitivity in dealing with a case like the one in Jalgaon where child abuse is staring them in the face."
Pratibha Shinde of the human rights advocacy group Lok Sangharsh Samiti pointed out how the deafening silence on part of the Jalgaon district child welfare committee (CWC) was shocking.
"They are the whole and sole authority to deal with any case related to care, protection, treatment, development and rehabilitation of children as well as to provide for their basic needs and human rights. Whether it is a child rescued from hazardous occupations, brothels, or an abusive situation like this in Wakdi. Such children must be produced before the CWC to conduct an inquiry to facilitate maximum rehabilitation with minimal trauma to the child."
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