 bill no  234 of  2017 the protection of children from sexual offences (amendment) bill, 2017 by shri kalikesh narayan singh deo, mp a billfurther to amend the protection of children from sexual offences act, 2012be is enacted by parliament in the sixty-eighth year of the republic of india as follows:—short title and commencement1 (1) this act may be called the protection of children from sexual offences(amendment) act, 20175(2) it shall come into force on such date as the central government may, by notification in the official gazette, appoint32 of 2012amendment of section 22 in section 2 of the protection of children from sexual offences act, 2012 (hereinafter referred to as the principal acts,—(a) after clause (c), the following clause shall be inserted, namely:—10'(ca) "centre" means the one stop crisis centre set up under section38b;'; (b) after clause (d), the following clause shall be inserted, namely:—'(da) "child victim" means the child against whom the offence has been committed under this act;'; and (c) after clause (e), the following clause shall be inserted, namely:—15'(ea) "fund" means the sexually abused children rehabilitation andwelfare fund constituted under section 38f;'amendment of section 33 in section 3 of the principal act, after clause (d), the following provisos shall be inserted, namely:—''provided that the consensual sexual intercourse or any sexual act with a child in the age group of sixteen to eighteen years shall not constitute an offence:5provided further that the consensual sexual intercourse or any sexual act which causes or likely to cause any harm to the child giving the consent shall constitute an offence''amendment of section 194 in section 19 of the principal act, after sub-section (5), the following sub-section shall be inserted, namely:—102 of 201615"(5a) where the accused is a relative of the child either through blood or adoption or marriage or guardianship or in foster care or having a family relationship with a parent of the child or who is living in the same or shared household with the child against whom the offence has been committed, then, the special juvenile police unit or local police shall, after recording the reasons in writing, make immediate arrangement to admit the child into a shelter home or a child care institution registered under section 41 of the juvenile justice (care and protection of children) act, 2015 so that at no point of time the child comes in contact in any way with the accused"5 after chapter viii of the principal act, the following chapter and sections thereunder shall be inserted, namely:—insertion of new chapter viiia "chapter viiia20 support, rehabilitation and social integration38a the central government and every state government shall take such measures as it thinks fit and appropriate to ensure and undertake the process of rehabilitation and social integration of the child victimcentral government and state government to take measures to ensure and undertake the process of rehabilitation and social integration of the child victim25setting up of one stop crisis centre38b (1) the state government shall, by notification in the official gazette, set up and maintain in every district, one or more centre to be known as the one stop crisis centre as may be required, to facilitate the child victim to deal with the trauma of abuse and assist him in processes involved with appearing as a witness before the special court or any authority handling his case30(2) every centre set up under sub-section (1), shall be registered within a period of six months from the date of commencement of this act in such manner as may be prescribed(3) the centre shall consist of—(a) one centre co-ordinator with prescribed qualifications and experience matters concerning children;35(b) four case-workers who are experts or professionals shaving prescribed qualifications and experience on matters concerning child sexual abuse;(c) two legal officers with prescribed qualifications and experience on laws related to children;(d) one counsellor with prescribed qualifications and experience of working with children who are victims of sexual abuse;(e) a panel of doctors, forensic experts, pediatricians, psychologists, gynecologists and other professional service providers who may be called on to provide necessary services as per the requirements in each case;54 of 2006(f) two members of the state commissions for protection of child rights constituted under section 17 of the commission for protection of child rights act,2005, to be appointed by the state government in such manner as may be prescribed:provided that at least one of the case-worker appointed under clause (b) shall be a woman10(4) the salaries and allowances payable to, and other terms and conditions of serviceof persons appointed under clause (a) to (f) shall be such as may be prescribed38c the centre shall—functions of the centre(a) provide basic requirements such as food, clothing, shelter and medical attention, including counselling specific to the need of the child victim;15(b) provide assistance to every child victim at the time of medical examinationincluding escort of the child to the place of medical examination;(c) provide assistance for obtaining the proof of identity, wherever required; (d) facilitate proper investigations into the case and provide immediate specialand support services to the child victim;(e) provide legal aid wherever required;20(f) undertake case management including preparation and follow up of individualchild;(g) attend hearing in court in the best interest of the child;25(h) provide referral services for education, vocational training, treatment ofdiseases where required;(i) provide recreational activities including sports and cultural activities; and (j) undertake such other measures as may be necessary for the rehabilitation andwelfare of the child victim under this act3038d (1) the centre shall submit monthly information regarding children availing the services of the centre under this act to the state government in such manner as may be prescribedcentre to submit information to state government(2) the state government shall, after taking into account the number of children availing the services of the centre, provide monthly funding to a centre to ensure wellbeing of the children in such manner as may be prescribed3538e the central government and state government shall independently evaluate andmonitor the functioning of the centre, at such period and through such persons or institutions as may be prescribed by that governmentgovernment to monitor the functioning of the centre40constitution of sexually abused children rehabilitation and welfare fund38f (1) the central government shall, as soon as may be, by notification in the official gazette, constitute a fund to be known as the sexually abused children rehabilitation and welfare fund for carrying out the purposes of this act(2) the fund shall be credited money received from body corporate and financial institutions of both domestic and international, individuals and bodies donations(3) all money received in the fund shall be utilized for carrying out the purposes of this act in such manner as may be prescribed38g the central government shall, after due appropriation made by parliament by law in this behalf, from time to time, provide adequate funds to the state governments for carrying out the purposes of this act"central government to provide funds to the state government5 after section 41 of the principal act, the following section shall be inserted, namely:—insertion of new section 41a5"41a where the accused is a parent or a guardian of the child, the provisions of sections 3 to 13 (both inclusive) shall not apply in case of medical examination or medical treatment of a child, when such medical examination or medical treatment is undertaken in the best interest of the child without the consent from his parents or guardian:10provided that medical examination or medical treatment of a child victim shall not apply when the consent is obtained from the authority handling the case"provisions of sections 3 to 13 (both inclusive) not to apply in case of medical examination or medical treatment of a child undertaken in the best interest of the childamendment of section 436 in section 43 of the principal act, after clause (b), the following clauses shall be inserted, namely:—15"(c) sensitisation of all stakeholders including police officers at all levels, magistrate, child welfare committees, special prosecutors and juvenile justice board to make procedures child friendly and provide periodic training on method of handling child abuse  related case; and(d) conduct periodic child sensitisation programmes and orientation on laws related to children for those  involved in healing rehabilitation and other assistance programmes for children" statement of objects and reasonsindia  is home to the largest child population in the world almost forty-two per centof the total population of the country is under eighteen years of age needless to say, the health and security of the country's children is an integral to any vision for its progress and developmentthe ministry of women and child development enacted the protection of children from sexual offences act, 2012 to protect our children from offences of child sexual assault and to provide a child-friendly system  for trial of the offences despite the stringent legal provisions, india continues to rank among the top five countries with the highest rate of child sexual abuseover the past few years, various lacunae in the implementation of this act has become apparent law conviction rate (meagerly between 7-16 per cent) and increasing pendency of cases continue to be a hindrance in providing justice to victims of child sexual abuse this bill is an effort to address the weaknesses of the present legislative frameworka common observation is that the judicial system is overburdened with cases of consensual sex any sexual activity with children under eighteen years is considered to be an offence as the law does not recognise consent it presents a problem as young boys and girls in consesnual relationships are often trapped under the charges of sexual assault subsequently,  victims turn hostile as they are forced in to the lawful case due to family presssure leading to acquittals and false cases in the light of these circumstances, there is a need to look at consensual relationships from a different perspective and decriminalise them depending on  whether there was a criminal intentstatistics released by the national crime records bureau 2016 reveal that 948 per cent of rape cases saw children being raped by someone they knew including neighbours, direct family members and relatives the abusers often use their position of power, age difference, intellectual or physical development, relationship of authority over child or child's dependency over them to their advantage a recent study of high court judgments revealed that a high proportion of vicitims turned hostile when the perpetrator was an acquaintance to bring the conviction rate higher and punish the perpetrators, there is an overwhelming need to separate the children from the family in cases where the alleged perpetrator is a family member to avoid them from turning hostilesecondly, if the doctors conduct medical examination or treatment of the child victim against consent of the parents, they can be prosecuted if the parent or father is an abuser, he may refuse to provide such consent there is need to take into consideration cases of incest, where the doctors cannot be criminally charged for acting in the best interest of the child and performing the examination, without the consent of the parentslack of training and sensitisation on child friendly procedure often creates traumatic episodes for children the need is also to provide an exhaustive list of stakeholders to be trained to implement child friendly mechanisms during the course of trial to address the needs of childrensexual abuse can scar the psyche of the affected child for life and lead to suicidal tendencies the current law lacks exclusive provisions for after-care, medical support and social integration of the child which further exposes him to re-victimisation in the society the need of the hour is direct the state governments to establish and maintain one stop crisis centres in every district to provide integrated services such as police assistance, legal aid, medical and counselling for serving the victims betterwe need to make our nation safe for children, better policing, increasing accountability, bolstering mechanisms for prevention, and ensuring swifter prosecution should be the approach of stakeholders involvedhence this billnew delhi;november,  29, 2017kalikesh narayan singh deo financial memorandumclause 5 of the bill provides that central government shall take such measures as it thinks fit and appropriate to ensure and undertake the process of rehabilitation and social integration of the child victim it also provides for setting up of one stop crisis centre by the state government to facilitate the child victim to deal with the trauma of abuse it also provides for appointment of experts and other persons to the centre it further provides for the establishment of the sexually abused rehabilitation and welfare fund by the central government the expenditure relating to states shall be borne from the consolidated fund of the state government concerned the bill, therefore, if enacted, will involve recurring expenditure from the consolidated fund of india it is estimated that a sum of rupees fifty crore per annum would involve from the consolidated fund of indiaa non-recurring expenditure to the tune of rupees ten crore is also likely to be involved annexure extract from the protection of children from sexual offences act, 2012  definitions2 (1) in this act, unless the context otherwise requires,—(a)  (b)  (c) "armed forces or security forces" means armed forces of the union or security forces or police forces, as specified in the schedule;(d) "child" means any person below the age of eighteen years;(e) "domestic relationship" shall have the same meaning as assigned to it in clause (f) of section 2 of the protection of women from domestic violence act, 2005  3 a person is said to commit "penetrative sexual assault" if—penetrative sexual assault(a) he penetrates his penis, to any extent, into the vagina, mouth, urethra or anus of a child or makes the child to do so with him or any other person; or(b) he inserts, to any extent, any object or a part of the body, not being the penis, into the vagina, the urethra or anus of the child or makes the child to do so with him or any other person; or(c) he manipulates any part of the body of the child so as to cause penetration into the vagina, urethra, anus or any part of body of the child or makes the child to do so with him or any other person; or(d) he applies his mouth to the penis, vagina, anus, urethra of the child or makes the child to do so to such person or any other person  19   reporting of offences(5) where the special juvenile police unit or local police is satisfied that the child against whom an offence has been committed is in need of care and protection, then, it shall, after recording the reasons in writing, make immediate arrangement to give him such care and protection including admitting the child into shelter home or to the nearest hospital within twenty-four hours of the report, as may be prescribed   43 the central government and every state government, shall take all measures to ensure that—public awareness about act(a) the provisions of this act are given wide publicity through media including the television, radio and the print media at regular intervals to make the general public, children as well as their parents and guardians aware of the provisions of this act;(b) the  officers of the central government and the state governments and other  concerned persons (including the police officers) are imparted periodic training on the matters relating to the implementation of the provisions of the act  ———— a billfurther to amend the protection of children from sexual offences act, 2012————(shri kalikesh narayan singh deo, mp)gmgipmrnd—2759ls(s3)—18122017