No bar to report cases of child sexual abuse decades after it happened

The Women and Child Development Ministry has stated that “ any survivor, at any stage, can complain about the sexual abuse faced by him/her as a child” . The government has made this statement while giving a clarity upon the law that adult survivors of child sexual abuse can report the case even decades after its happening. Maneka Gandhi, the union cabinet minister for women and child development, has asked the survivors to report such cases on the Protection of Children from Sexual offenses (POCSO) e-box on the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights web portal. She has stated that the POCSO Act does not provide for a limitation for filing a sexual abuse complaint. She has further stated that in this regard she has written to the law minister Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad stating the issue and asking the law ministry to ratify the same in order to enable the survivors to take appropriate actions while also giving clarity to the enforcement agencies to act accordingly. Furthermore, the WCD ministry had stated in a statement on Tuesday, October 16, 2018 that they had consulted the law ministry about the overriding effect of certain provisions of the POCSO act over other criminal laws and provisions related to mandatory reporting of such offenses.