Goa Children's Act 2003

The Goa Children’s Act, 2003
[8 July, 2003]

TGF understands the pressure on the Goa Government to be seen to do something about the Paedophiles who frequent the beaches of Goa in search of young, hungry and naive children of poor migrants who have flocked to Goa over the past 30+ years.

In the rush to act, the Goa Government produced the Goa Children's Act 2003 (GCA 2003). Despite, possibly the best of intentions, the legal draftsmen of this Act have produced a bhel-puri consisting inter alia of strange contradictions, dangerous principles and high falutin intentions.

Here are some of the areas which the Goa Government might wish to revisit:

GCA 2003 8. Child Abuse.
(2) ...Whoever commits any Grave Sexual Assault shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term that shall not be less than seven years but which may extend to ten years and shall also be liable to a fine of Rs. 2,00,000. Whoever commits incest shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term of one year plus fine of Rs. 1,00,000/-.

TGF: Whatever the true construction of the words "either description", Is Incest NOT a Grave Sexual Assault? So, why this relative leniency for Incest?

GCA 2003 8. Child Abuse.
(3) When a sexual assault or a grave sexual assault is committed, the need to ascertain whether a child needs to be medically examined or not shall be decided by the investigating authorities in consultation with a professional social worker/counsellor.

TGF: On what basis does this clause give "investigating authorities & counsellors / social workers" the right to determine the need for the medical examination of any sexually assaulted child ? Are any of these decision makers likely to be trained in Medicine?

GCA 2003 32. Procedure of the Children’s Court.-
(1) The Children’s Court shall follow such procedure as may be prescribed:

(l) Burden of Proof : Whenever any offence is alleged to have been committed against a child, the burden of proving that such offence has not been committed by the accused shall lie on the accused.

TGF: Is this compatible with the Constitutional right of the Accused to be considered Innocent unless proven Guilty? How exactly does one prove that one did NOT commit an act? ( alibi having been taken into account )

This Act to be fair and effective must make provisions for mandatory DNA testing in ALL cases where Sexual Assault is suspected or claimed.

GCA 2003 7. Child Labour:
(6) The State shall formulate a comprehensive Plan of Action to eradicate all forms of Child Labour within a period of two years from the commencement of this Act.

(8) There shall be a Child Labour Vigilance Officer in each Taluka to monitor the implementation of the Plan of Action to eliminate child labour, and to carry out such other duties as the Government may specify. The Officer shall be assisted by a Task Force of such other persons as may be prescribed.

TGF: So, dear Goa Govt, is it Two Years yet since July 8, 2003 ? What happened to all this high falutin rhetoric ?

GCA 2003 5. Health & Nutrition:
(7) It shall be the duty of all individuals, organizations, institutions etc., to keep their immediate environment clean

TGF: That is interesting, considering that Goa as a whole is undergoing a massive filthification process.

GCA 2003 8. Child Abuse:
(19) The State shall provide for the setting up of one or more Victim Assistance Units which shall facilitate the child to deal with the trauma of abuse and assist the child in processes involved with appearing as a witness before any Court or authority handling a case of abuse of a child.

TGF: Any Victims Assistance Units in place yet ?

GCA 2003 32. Procedure of the Children’s Court:
(b) Procedural Protection of Innocence: Procedural safe-guards shall be guaranteed to protect the presumption of innocence;

(l) Burden of Proof : Whenever any offence is alleged to have been committed against a child, the burden of proving that such offence has not been committed by the accused shall lie on the accused.

TGF: Does the Goa Govt believe that the above two clauses are compatible with each other?

GCA 2003 32. Procedure of the Children’s Court:
(n) Cross examination of child witness: Whenever there is a need to cross examine a child witness, care shall be taken to see that the tender age or in case of a victim, the psychological condition of the child is taken into consideration and the Children’s Court may adopt such procedures which are fair and suitable to the child.

TGF: Has the Goa Govt appointed specially trained and experienced Child Psychologists to be physically present at the time of first report, deposition, direct examination and cross examination?

TGF believes that the Goa Children's Act 2003 is a valiant but remarkably shoddy effort by the Goa Government to deal with the problem of Child Abuse. It is possible that not much objection is being presently raised because most of the Abusers are alleged to be foreigners, and most of the Abused, migrant children.

One fine day, this shoddy piece of hurried legislation will affect an innocent Goan. Equally, it might provide a legal loophole for a perpetrator to be let off - on appeal.

The Goa Government MUST send this hotch-potch of a legislation BACK to the drawing board IMMEDIATELY; and please, do not use the same geniuses who created this hotch-potch.

The Goa Govt MUST institute the policy of MANDATORY DNA collection in ALL cases of Sexual Assault. It must also create a specially trained unit to deal with these cases. An Unit consisting of paediatricians, lawyers, social workers, child psychologists and law enforcement officers.

TGF
September 13, 2005

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