Children: the girl child, child marriage, juvenile justice, POCSO and child labour

Detail

1. Constitutional base for child rights

Provision	Part	What it says (in simple words)
Art. 15(3)	III (Fundamental Right)	The State may make special provisions for women and children. This is an exception to the rule against discrimination.
Art. 21A	III	Free and compulsory education for all children aged 6-14. Added by the 86th Amendment, 2002. The RTE Act 2009 puts it into effect.
Art. 24	III	No child below 14 may work in a factory or mine or do any other hazardous employment (work that harms health or safety).
Art. 39(e)	IV (DPSP)	The tender age of children must not be abused. Poverty must not force children into work that does not suit their age or strength.
Art. 39(f)	IV	Children must get chances to develop in freedom and dignity. They must be protected from exploitation and from being abandoned. Reworded by the 42nd Amendment, 1976.
Art. 45	IV	After the 86th Amendment it covers early childhood care and education for children below 6. Before, it promised free education up to age 14.
Art. 51A(k)	IV-A (Fundamental Duty)	A parent or guardian must give their child (6-14) chances to get an education. Also added by the 86th Amendment.

• DPSP (Directive Principles of State Policy) are goals the government must keep in mind when it makes laws. A court cannot enforce them.
• Arts. 23-24 together form the "Right against Exploitation". With child labour illegal and education a fundamental right, this right "has become more meaningful" (NCERT: Class 11, Rights in the Indian Constitution).
• International commitment: India ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) in 1992. In 2017, India also ratified both core ILO child-labour Conventions: No. 138 (minimum age for work) and No. 182 (worst forms of child labour) [11].
• NCPCR (National Commission for Protection of Child Rights) is a statutory body set up under the Commissions for Protection of Child Rights (CPCR) Act 2005. It monitors child-rights laws, including POCSO and RTE.

2. The girl child: sex ratio and sex selection

• PCPNDT Act 1994:
• The 1994 law was the PNDT Act. Its present full name is the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act. It was renamed by an amendment in 2003.
• It bans sex selection, both before conception and after conception.
• It bans telling anyone the sex of the foetus.
• It regulates diagnostic techniques such as ultrasound. They may be used only to detect medical problems, never to find out the sex.
• Enforcement: Central and State Supervisory Boards make policy. Appropriate Authorities at the district and state levels register clinics, inspect them, seize machines and file cases.

• Female foeticide means killing a female foetus because it is a girl. Stopping it is the main aim of the Act.

• CEHAT v. Union of India (2001-03): the Supreme Court found that the Act was hardly being enforced. It ordered the Centre and the states to set up the Act's bodies, register and inspect clinics, and file cases.

• Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP):
• Launched on 22 January 2015 at Panipat (Haryana).
• Aim: reverse the falling child sex ratio (girls per 1,000 boys aged 0-6) and help girls survive and go to school.
• It is now part of Mission Shakti, the umbrella mission for women's safety and empowerment.

3. Child marriage

• Prohibition of Child Marriage Act (PCMA) 2006:
• A child is a girl below 18 or a boy below 21.
• A child marriage is voidable, not void. Voidable means it stays valid unless the person who was a minor asks a court to cancel it.
• Void means a marriage that never had any legal effect at all. Under the Act, this applies only to special cases such as trafficking or force.
• The petition to annul (cancel) the marriage can be filed until two years after the person becomes an adult [13].
• Punishment applies to an adult man who marries a child, and to anyone who performs, conducts or promotes a child marriage.

• Child Marriage Prohibition Officers are appointed by states. They prevent such marriages, collect evidence and make people aware of the law.

• Key judgments:

• Independent Thought v. Union of India (2017): sex with a wife aged 15-18 is rape. The Court read down the "marital exception" in rape law for minor wives.

• Society for Enlightenment and Voluntary Action v. Union of India (October 2024): the Court gave guidelines to prevent child marriage. These cover awareness, special police units, trained officers and community action.

• The 2021 Bill to raise the age:

• The Prohibition of Child Marriage (Amendment) Bill, 2021 would have raised the marriage age for women from 18 to 21, the same as for men [12].
• It would have extended the time to annul a marriage to five years after majority, which means up to age 23 [12][13].
• It said the Act would override any other law, custom or practice. It also changed personal laws such as the Hindu Marriage Act 1955 and the Special Marriage Act 1954 [12].
• It was sent to the Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports on 21 December 2021 [12].
• It lapsed in 2024 when the 17th Lok Sabha was dissolved.

4. Juvenile justice

• Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2015:
• It replaced the JJ Act 2000. Parliament passed it after the December 2012 Delhi gang-rape case, in which one accused was a juvenile.
• It deals with two groups of children:
  • Children in conflict with law (CCL): children who are alleged to have committed an offence.
  • Children in need of care and protection (CNCP): for example orphans, abandoned children, child labourers and victims of abuse.
• Offences are graded into three types:

Category	Meaning
Petty	Maximum punishment up to 3 years
Serious	3-7 years. The 2021 amendment added offences with a maximum above 7 years and no minimum or a minimum below 7 years [2]
Heinous	Minimum punishment of 7 years or more

• The 2021 change fixed a gap that the Supreme Court pointed out in Shilpa Mittal v. State of NCT of Delhi (2020). The Act had no category for that fourth type of offence [2].

• Trying 16-18-year-olds as adults (steps in order): 1. A child aged 16-18 is accused of a heinous offence. 2. The Juvenile Justice Board makes a preliminary assessment. It looks at the child's mental and physical capacity, the child's understanding of the results of the act, and the circumstances. 3. The Board may send the case to a Children's Court (a Sessions Court acting under the Act). 4. The Children's Court decides whether to try the child as an adult. 5. Even if the child is convicted, there is no death sentence and no life imprisonment without the chance of release.

• Bodies under the JJ Act:

Body	Members	Deals with
Juvenile Justice Board (JJB)	A Metropolitan or Judicial Magistrate plus two social workers, at least one a woman	Children in conflict with law
Child Welfare Committee (CWC)	A chairperson and four members in each district. It has the powers of a magistrate	Children in need of care and protection: rescue, care, rehabilitation and placing them in a home

• Adoption:
• Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) is a statutory body (set up by a law) under the JJ Act 2015. It works under the Ministry of Women and Child Development.
• CARA regulates adoption within India and between countries.
• It is India's central authority under the Hague Adoption Convention, which India ratified in 2003.

• 2021 amendment:

  • The power to make adoption orders moved from courts to the District Magistrate, including the Additional DM [2].
  • An appeal now goes to the Divisional Commissioner. PRS noted that this leaves no judicial oversight at the appeal stage [2].
  • The amendment was passed by Parliament in July 2021 [3].
  • By 31 July 2023, District Magistrates had issued 2,625 adoption orders [4].

• Funding: Mission Vatsalya (2021-22) is the umbrella scheme that funds JJBs, CWCs, child-care homes, foster care and adoption services.

5. POCSO Act 2012

• The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act 2012 is gender-neutral. It protects every person below 18, whether a boy, a girl or any other gender.
• Offences it defines:
• penetrative sexual assault;
• aggravated penetrative sexual assault: the same offence, treated as more serious when the offender is in a position of trust or authority (for example police, a teacher or a relative), or when the child is very young or disabled;
• sexual assault: sexual touching without penetration;
• sexual harassment;

• using a child for pornography.

• Procedure:

• s.19: mandatory reporting. Anyone who knows of an offence must tell the Special Juvenile Police Unit (SJPU) or the local police.
• s.21: failing to report is punishable.
• s.28: Special Courts are set up. They use child-friendly procedure: the child does not face the accused, there are no aggressive questions, the hearing is held in a closed room, and the child's identity is kept secret.

• s.29: the court presumes the accused is guilty for certain offences. The accused must prove their innocence, which reverses the usual rule.

• 2019 amendment:

• The minimum punishment for aggravated penetrative sexual assault (s.6) went up from 10 to 20 years, and the death penalty became possible [5][6].
• Child pornography was defined in s.2. The minimum punishment for using a child for pornography (s.14) became 5 years [5].

• s.15: not deleting or reporting stored child pornography became punishable with a fine of ₹5,000 for the first offence and ₹10,000 for a later one, and jail if the material is spread [5].

• Key judgments and reports:

• Attorney General for India v. Satish (2021): the Supreme Court rejected the Bombay High Court's "skin-to-skin" test. What counts is the sexual intent behind the touch, not whether skin touched skin.
• Just Rights for Children Alliance v. S. Harish (September 2024): viewing, storing or keeping child sexual exploitative and abuse material is an offence under POCSO. The Court asked Parliament to replace the term "child pornography" with "child sexual exploitative and abuse material (CSEAM)".

• Law Commission, 283rd Report (2023): it advised against lowering the age of consent below 18. Instead, it suggested giving courts guided discretion to sentence differently in cases of genuine teenage relationships.

• Fast courts: by January 2025, 754 Fast Track Special Courts, including 404 exclusive POCSO courts, were working in 30 states and UTs. They had disposed of over 3.06 lakh cases [7].

6. Child labour

• The law and its renaming: the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act 1986 was amended in 2016. Its new name is the Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act. The amendment came into force on 1 September 2016 [8].
• Children below 14:
• Complete ban on all work [8].

• Two exceptions:

  • helping in a family enterprise, but only after school hours and only in non-hazardous work;
  • working as an artist in audio-visual entertainment (film, TV, advertisements), but not in circuses.

• Adolescents aged 14-18: they are barred from hazardous occupations and processes [8].

• The criticism:
• The hazardous list was cut to three categories: mines, inflammable substances or explosives, and hazardous processes under the Factories Act 1948.

• The family-enterprise exception can hide child labour in home-based industries.

• M.C. Mehta v. State of Tamil Nadu (1996):

• The case concerned child labour in the Sivakasi match and fireworks industry.
• The Supreme Court ordered a Child Labour Rehabilitation-cum-Welfare Fund. Employers who break the law pay into it.

• The Court also linked a child's release from work to education for the child and support for the family.

• PENCIL portal (2017):

• PENCIL stands for Platform for Effective Enforcement for No Child Labour. The Union Home Minister launched it in 2017 [10].
• It has five parts: Child Tracking System, Complaint Corner, State Government, National Child Labour Project (NCLP) and Convergence [9].
• State Resource Centres, headed by the State Labour Secretary, use it to monitor enforcement and rescue children [9].

Prelims Hooks

• Art. 24 bans children below 14 only from factories, mines and hazardous work. The 2016 Act, not Art. 24, bans all work below 14.
• Art. 21A and Art. 51A(k) both came from the 86th Amendment (2002). Art. 39(f) was reworded by the 42nd Amendment (1976).
• Art. 45 now covers children below 6 (early childhood care), not 6-14.
• Under PCMA 2006, a child marriage is voidable, not void. The 2021 Bill to raise girls' age to 21 lapsed in 2024.
• JJB = magistrate + 2 social workers (at least 1 woman). CWC = chairperson + 4 members. Do not swap them.
• 2021 JJ amendment: adoption orders now come from the District Magistrate, not courts. Appeals go to the Divisional Commissioner [2].
• POCSO is gender-neutral and covers everyone under 18. s.29 presumes guilt. The 2019 amendment allowed death for aggravated penetrative assault (s.6) [5].
• Case-principle pairs: Satish (2021) rejected "skin-to-skin". Independent Thought (2017): sex with a wife aged 15-18 is rape. CEHAT (2001-03): enforce PCPNDT. M.C. Mehta (1996): Sivakasi rehabilitation fund. Just Rights for Children Alliance (2024): viewing or storing CSEAM is an offence.
• CARA is statutory under the JJ Act 2015. India ratified the Hague Adoption Convention in 2003.
• India ratified ILO Conventions 138 and 182 in 2017 [11].

Mains Points

• Age of consent vs adolescent autonomy: POCSO makes all sexual activity below 18 an offence, so consensual teenage relationships also lead to prosecution. The Law Commission's 283rd Report (2023) kept the age at 18 but supported judicial discretion in sentencing. This balances protection against over-criminalising teenagers.
• Treating juveniles as adults: after 2012, the JJ Act 2015 allows adult trial of 16-18-year-olds for heinous offences. Supporters cite deterrence and justice for victims. Critics cite the reformative purpose of juvenile justice, the UNCRC and the subjectivity of the "preliminary assessment".
• Weak enforcement despite strong laws: the PCPNDT Act needed CEHAT to be enforced. Under the 2016 Act, the family-enterprise exception and a three-category hazardous list dilute Art. 24 and Art. 39(e). Child marriage needed the SEVA (2024) guidelines. The issues are capacity, social norms and convergence with RTE and Mission Vatsalya.
• Raising girls' marriage age to 21: it would bring gender equality (Art. 14) and better health and education. But it risks criminalising families, and it lapsed without consensus. The root causes, such as poverty, school dropout and safety, need schemes like BBBP and Mission Shakti, not only penal law.