Swetapadma

Sexual Offences Against Children in India examines the evolution of the law pertaining to sexual violence against children, the judicial decisions since the inception of the POCSO Act till date with respect to aspects of the POCSO Act and the best practices from other developed jurisdictions for handling cases and victims of child abuse.

Despite being prevalent, violence against children is often hidden or underreported, though its impact is widely acknowledged. In a country like India the vocabulary to communicate around sexuality and sexual abuse is almost non-existent. India has seen its journey from having no law on sexual abuse of children to having a ＂special＂ law in the form of the Protection of Children against Sexual Offences Act 2012 (POCSO Act). This book demystifies the problem of sexual violence against children in India pre- and post-POCSO Act. There is also a novel attempt to examine the implementation of the POCSO Act in the eastern Indian states of Odisha, Jharkhand and West Bengal, and if its objectives were being attained - in content, in implementation, and in impact.

This book will be useful for police, judiciary and government officials, scholars, and researchers studying comparative aspects of dealing with sexual offence cases against children.

Sonali Swetapadma is working as an Assistant Professor in the School of Law, KIIT-DU. She has completed her graduation in B.Com (Management) from Ravenshaw University. Thereafter she completed her LLB (Hons) from Madhusudan Law College and her Masters in Law with specialization in Criminal and Security Law from School of Law, KIIT-DU. Currently, she is also pursuing her Ph.D. on the topic ＂A critical analysis of the Protection of Children against Sexual Offences Act 2012 (with special reference to Odisha)＂ in KIIT-DU. She has the experience of working as Field Investigator for Odisha in an ICSSR-sponsored Research Programme ＂Response to the Offence of Rape by the Criminal Justice System - An Empirical Study in the States of Odisha, Jharkhand and West Bengal.＂

Paromita Chattoraj is a Professor of Law at the National Law University Odisha (NLUO). She graduated with LLB (Hons) from the Department of Law, University of Calcutta, and completed her LLM, with having specialization in Criminal Law, with a Gold Medal in 2004. She completed her PhD on the subject of Rape Laws in 2013. She worked at the School of Law, KIIT-DU, before joining NLUO. She was a criminal lawyer practising at Calcutta High Court before coming to academics. She had been the recipient of the ICSSR grant in 2013-14 for data Collection in California, USA, for comparative research on Rape Investigation and Prosecution in India and USA. She has been involved with research projects, viz., International Self-Reported Delinquency Project (ISRD-3) from 2012 to 2015 and Major Research Program 2018-20 on Investigation and Trial of Rape cases in the States of Odisha, Jharkhand and West Bengal funded by the ICSSR.