The Supreme Court of India said that 150,332 child rape cases are still pending throughout the country and its disposal rate is only at 9 percent.
This means that over 150 thousand child rape victims are still waiting for the government to give them justice.
7 years ago, the government of India introduced the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, which was brought in to provide protection for kids who are abused sexually.
The Supreme Court said, “We are beginning to develop a blueprint of the data management system to streamline data in POCSO cases. It will enable us to have the exact number of cases and progress made on trial.”
During the court hearing of the matter, it was revealed that trial courts of child rape cases are facing difficulties to manage cases as other kinds of criminal cases are also being brought in.
In the same hearing, it was said that a POCSO Court in Patiala conducts both MCOCA (Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act) and POCSO Cases.
They added, “The exclusivity of POCSO courts is the need of the hour in the background of 1.5 lakh cases. In the absence of a data management system, it is extremely difficult to collect, collate and analyze data, which impedes the judicial system to fast-track such cases.”
Ranjan Gogoi, A Chief Justice, said that India has “more cases than judges” and said that this was the reason why it takes time to provide justice to the victims.
Last year, Kailash Satyarthi, a Nobel Laureate, said that the rise in the number of reported cases of rape and child sex abuse in India should be considered as a “National Emergency”.
When Kailash said those words, there were 100,000 rape and child abuses pending in India.