YEARENDER 2024: The Year When India’s Judicial System Stood Up For Children

India's Landmark 2024 Judgments: A New Era in Child Protection. India has witnessed a momentous shift in its approach to child protection in recent years. In 2024 alone, the country's judiciary made significant strides toward creating a more comprehensive and robust child protection framework. This year, landmark judgments in the country have transformed how children are viewed and treated under the law.

From the tightening of laws against child sexual exploitation to the proactive steps aimed at eradicating child marriage, the judiciary is sending an unmistakable message: the protection of children is non-negotiable.

Here are five landmark judgments that mark a pivotal moment in India's journey towards safeguarding its children.

Supreme Court on Child Pornography

Putting a long-awaited cap on the vicious demand-supply cycle that fuelled the child porn industry, Supreme Court on September 23, 2004, said anyone as much as viewing in private, downloading, storing, possessing, or distributing child pornographic material is liable to be booked under the POCSO as well as IT Act.

India, with its over 950 million internet users, is both a crucial consumer and host of such material. This judgment is a watershed moment setting a precedent for the world. By changing the parlance from Child pornography to Child Sexual Exploitative and Abuse Material (CSEAM), the Supreme Court has also steered a paradigm shift in how the crime is perceived. With the term replaced with CSEAM, 'child pornography' no longer remains mere adult indulgence but is now a serious criminal offence that can neither be ignored nor tolerated.

This landmark judgment, while hearing the petition by Just Rights for Children Alliance, has tightened the grip on this entire nexus of child abusers and paedophiles who run a multi-million industry exploiting and abusing children globally.

Supreme Court on Child Marriage

India has always been a hotspot on the global map when it comes to child marriage. With UN figures screeching that one in every three victims of early marriage is in India, the country had to act fast and effectively to combat this social evil that remains entwined in the very roots of our societal structure. Despite it being a crime as per the country's laws, the deterrence remains dismal. Financial challenges, familial pressures, societal perception and religious dogmas blinding logic and fairness have kept the numbers of child marriages in the country high. But the winds of change are blowing.

In a landmark judgment on child marriage law in the country, the Supreme Court of India on October 18, 2024, issued guidelines for the effective implementation of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 and said that child marriage robs a child of her free will to choose a life partner. The Supreme Court noted that the authorities need to adopt a prevention-protection-prosecution strategy and a community-driven approach to end this centuries-old crime. The guidelines issued by the Supreme Court focus on ensuring that schools, religious institutions, and panchayats are seats of awareness generation against child marriage with a special focus on the most vulnerable regions. And the recently launched nationwide 'Bal Vivah Mukt Bharat' Campaign by the Ministry of Women and Child Development to end child marriage is sure to give further push in this fight.

Even though many social reformers have voiced their protests against this practice for centuries, this judgment has finally stirred the nation towards the tipping point of ending child marriage with strategy, focus and approach.

Support Persons for POCSO victims

When a child who has been sexually abused in our country seeks justice, unfortunately, their ordeal often only thickens. While on one hand, the entire society puts them on trial and often treats them with more questions than support, the complex and tiring process to justice in the country's judicial system leaves them clueless, vulnerable and worse than when they started.

Once again, the apathy towards abuse victims is despite the laws in place. The Protection of Children against Sexual Offenses (POCSO) Act requires the state to provide support persons to child victims of sexual offences. A "support person" is a person assigned by the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) to help a child victim through the process of investigation and trial, and can ease the process for them while rebuilding their trust in the society and the system. Even though the law in place calls for a support person, the reality begs to differ. As per a research paper published by NGO India Child Protection, over 43 lakh cases under the POCSO Act were pending in fast-track special courts (FTSCs) as on January 31 2023.

However, the Supreme Court of India in August 2024 asked States and Union Territories to respond to the issue of compulsory appointment of support persons for the victims of child sexual abuse. The top court observed that justice can be said to have been approximated only when the victims are brought back to society, made to feel secure, and their worth and dignity restored.

A huge statement and decision indeed!

Panchayats Answerable if Child Marriages Occur

The child marriage clock starts ticking much faster in Rajasthan around the festival of Akshaya Tritiya every year. The child marriage rate in Rajasthan at 25.4 per cent is already above the national average of 23.3 per cent but this time of the year is when the threat of child marriage looms large over young children in the desert state. It remains an open secret that considering this an auspicious time, the villages and towns in the state perform many a child marriage, a few in open and many more clandestinely.

The trend, however, felt a huge blow this year when hearing a PIL filed by Just Rights For Children Alliance and others, the Rajasthan High Court directed days before the festival that the village heads and panchayats in the state will be held accountable if any child marriages occur in their villages. For this crime to end, it is important to rope in village authorities who are often in the know of such affairs and make them accountable for any occurrence of this crime.

No Waiting for 24 hours in Missing Children's cases

At the end of 2023, over 47,000 children were missing in India as per the National Crime Records Bureau and out of these, 71.4 per cent were minor girls. These children who went missing may have eloped with friends or ran away because they got poor marks or because the parents were strict, but in most likelihood, most of these children were lured and trafficked to dangerous networks and forced into child labour, abuse, exploitation, rape or prostitution.

For any crime world over, the first 24 hours are supposed to be the most crucial time for investigation. However, in cases of missing children, police often wait during this crucial time and act only when a day has passed. In a day a child could be trafficked to another city, state or even country.

So when the Delhi High Court directed all the police stations in the national capital to ensure that there shall be no waiting period of 24 hours to start an inquiry or investigation in cases of missing children, it made a huge turnaround in the way these cases are perceived and treated. The court said, "There is no scope for any speculation or conjecture that the child may return home in 24 hours and hence the police can wait."

All five judgments in this one year are a clear and firm step towards a society where matters about children is no more a child's play. However, as these legal victories unfold, the true challenge lies in the implementation and in ensuring that these protections reach every child, especially those in marginalized communities. While these judgments are a cause for optimism, the path ahead requires continuous vigilance, collaboration between government, civil society, and communities, and most importantly, a cultural shift that prioritizes the well-being and rights of children.

As India stands at this crossroads, the 2024 judgments are not just legal milestones; they are a clarion call for a more just, equitable, and child-centric society. The real work begins now - ensuring that the law serves its purpose and that every child can grow up free from fear, exploitation, and harm.