I<\/strong>n 2018, Padma was sixteen, and doing fairly well as a high school student in Bengaluru. One day, she had a stomach ache that grew progressively worse in the middle of a class. School authorities asked her mother, Nirmala, to come by and take her to the doctor.<\/p>\n Nirmala, a single parent from a lower middle-class background, reached the school and rushed her daughter to a government hospital. While they waited for the doctor, Padma went to the toilet.<\/p>\n A few minutes later, there was a wailing from inside the cubicle. When Nirmala pushed open the door, she saw an infant between Padma\u2019s legs. The umbilical cord still connected the mother and child. <\/p>\n This new life marked the abrupt end of Padma\u2019s carefree school days. <\/p>\n Padma said she did not know she was pregnant. Physically, she hadn\u2019t shown any signs at all. It just looked like she had put on a little weight. But within her tender teenaged body, barely used to menstruation, she had carried a child into the third trimester.<\/p>\n After the child was born, Padma came clean to her mother. She had had consensual sexual intercourse in a one-night exploration with a classmate. It hadn\u2019t meant anything to her.<\/p>\n A social worker familiar with Padma\u2019s case, who recounted its details to Scroll.in<\/em>, said that she decided to give up the child for adoption. The baby was gone as swiftly as it had come. But that wasn\u2019t the end of the story.<\/p>\n In India, the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act of 2012, or the POCSO Act, aims to protect children from sexual assault and sexual harassment. Under the law anyone who has information about a sexual act with a person under 18 years of age is required to report the information to the police. The law makes no distinction for consensual relationships between young people, where in some cases the male is just above the age of 18. This has had devastating effects in practice, with thousands of couples falling into the clutches of the law, and young men often being accused of violent crimes that carry punishment of up to life imprisonment.<\/p>\n The mandatory reporting requirement is reinforced in the case of doctors, who also have an obligation under section 357(c) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, to report various sexual offences to the police. Health professionals who do not report such information can face prison sentences of between six months to a year.<\/p>\n The mandatory reporting requirement was news to Nirmala, who is educated and works as a corporate employee. The mother-daughter duo pleaded with the police and doctors not to register a case. <\/p>\n But the police booked Ravi, the 16-year-old boy Padma had had sex with, for penetrative sexual assault on a minor. He was sent to an observation home \u2013 it was several weeks before he was granted bail. (All names of young people involved in POCSO cases, and their family members, have been changed to protect their identities.)<\/p>\n Designated the \u201cvictim\u201d of a crime, Padma had to spend countless days meeting social workers and lawyers, and appearing before doctors, police and judges. She was forced to answer questions about the relationship, and prevented from moving on with her life.<\/p>\n Padma and Ravi are not alone. There are 243 million adolescents<\/a> in India. According to organisations that work on child rights, thousands of them who are in relationships are ending up in similar situations, with the law to protect children from sexual offenses used against them. <\/p>\n POCSO was enacted in 2012 to improve the reporting of child sexual abuse in India, and put mechanisms in place to tackle the problem. It received warranted praise as the first law passed in India to tackle the problem of sexual offences against children, one that many felt was long overdue. But it also effectively criminalised sexual and romantic relationships between between adolescents, and between adolescents and young adults. Ten years on, consensus is emerging that young people in such relationships have suffered as collateral damage under this law.<\/p>\n In 2020, the National Crime Records Bureau recorded 28,327 crimes against children under the POCSO Act. Girls were identified as the victims in 99% of the cases. An analysis<\/a> by Child Rights and You showed that in 88% of these cases, the victims were girls aged between 12 and 18. While this was used by many to call for more protection for vulnerable teenage girls, those on the ground say the numbers are obscuring the harsh reality that many of these girls may not be victims of abuse, but victims of the law itself. However, there are no official records of consensual relationships booked under POCSO.<\/p>\n One 2017 study<\/a>, however, found that romantic cases accounted for 25% of POCSO cases. The study, by HAQ: Centre for Child Rights and the Forum Against Sexual Exploitation of Children, or FACSE, arrived at this figure after analysing 1,957 cases at special courts in Delhi and Mumbai between November 2012, when the Act came into force, and July 2015. Even in the early years, the pattern was clear \u2013 the law was indiscriminately used against adolescents in consensual relationships.<\/p>\n Judicial officers in Delhi interviewed for the study, meanwhile, cited much higher figures, of between 50% and 80% for the number of POCSO cases that involved such couples. <\/p>\n Another analysis<\/a>, conducted in 2014 by The Hindu<\/em>, found that 40% POCSO cases related to consensual sexual activity.<\/p>\n Dr Jagadeesh Narayanareddy, professor at the Vydehi Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre, Bengaluru, explained that the risk for young men was particularly grave because, in the aftermath of the 2012 Nirbhaya case, the Juvenile Justice Act was amended to allow individuals between the ages of 16 and 18 to be tried as adults under the criminal justice system in cases involving heinous offences.<\/p>\n The social worker familiar with Padma and Ravi\u2019s case noted that as a result of this amendment, \u201cthe board is within their right to transfer the case to the adult criminal justice system. And that is something that weighs very heavily on young people.\u201d They cited an instance of a 19-year-old who was convicted for life imprisonment despite being in a consensual relationship. <\/p>\n \u201cWho has told these kids that teenage sex is a crime? No one. They have no clue,\u201d said Kushi Kushalappa, the head of support and rehabilitation at Enfold Trust, an NGO in Bengaluru that works with survivors of child sexual abuse. She has seen the lives of several teenagers fall apart, simply because they were caught engaging in sexual or romantic relationships.<\/p>\n \u201cWe must protect children from entering the criminal justice system,\u201d said Maharukh Adenwalla, a Mumbai-based advocate and legal researcher, one of the authors of the HAQ-FACSE study.<\/p>\n Kushalappa pointed out the paradox of a society that has a problematic record of child marriages, and teenage pregnancies, trying to police teenage sex in the 21st century. \u201cBasically, you want to control their bodies. Where does this moralistic attitude come from? \u201d Kushalappa said. The way POCSO is used \u201cputs a lot of youngsters in a vulnerable position\u201d, she added. \u201cWe have to wake up to the fact that young people are engaged in sexual activity.\u201d <\/p>\n This story is part of <\/em>Common Ground<\/a>, our in-depth and investigative reporting project<\/em>. Sign up <\/em><\/strong>here<\/a> to<\/em><\/strong> get a fresh story in your inbox every Wednesday.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n T<\/strong>he use of the POCSO law against young people engaged in consensual relationships devastates their lives.<\/p>\n Ravi dropped out of school, and was branded a criminal in his community. In the worst-case scenario, he could end up spending his life in prison, the highest punishment under POCSO.<\/p>\n Padma\u2019s mother managed to shield her from social shame. Nirmala had worked hard to provide for her family, and the POCSO case threatened to ruin their reputation and future. She did not even tell her relatives about Padma\u2019s case. Her daughter had made a mistake. But the baby was gone, and the case could be handled quietly, she told Padma. She would fiercely protect Padma from society and the law.<\/p>\n But out of caution, she also decided not to send Padma to college. <\/p>\n Apart from the loss of opportunities, there are also grave health implications of the use of the POCSO law against consenting youngsters. Afraid of being dragged through the system, young people and even their parents often try to deal with health issues that can arise during pregnancies, without professional help, said Dr Narayanareddy.<\/p>\n \u201cTeenage pregnancies are complicated,\u201d said Dr Anitha GS, gynaecologist at Bengaluru\u2019s Vanivilas Women and Children Hospital. The risk is particularly high because the girl\u2019s bodies \u201care not well formed to take care of the baby\u201d, she explained. This increases the chances of problems such as obstructed labour. Thus, there are \u201cmore chances of ending up in Caesarean deliveries because her pelvis is not formed, the ligaments are not latched\u201d, as they would be in an older person, she added.<\/p>\n A Lancet study analysing National Family Health Survey-4 data found<\/a> a range of problems that were linked to adolescent childbearing including increased stunting and wasting in children, as well as lower education and income levels among the mothers.<\/p>\n These risks are exacerbated by the fact that there is almost no conversation around sexual and reproductive health in the country.<\/p>\n Dr Anitha pointed out that she frequently sees cases of young girls like Padma, who are unaware that they are pregnant. \u201cThey think they have irregular menstrual cycles,\u201d she said. \u201cWe have so many cases where they come in for a routine check-up or some minor ailment. But they are in their third trimester or just about to deliver.\u201d<\/p>\n Swati Jagdish, a sex educator based in Coimbatore, observed that even adults are often unaware of sexual and reproductive body parts and their functions, and that there is a shame and stigma associated with discussing them. The silence around these subjects \u201cculminates with young adults being ashamed of their bodies, unable understand its needs or desires, and lacking a vocabulary to understand the nuances of and differences between sex, pleasure and reproduction\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n The threat and use of POCSO can also lead to serious psychological problems. \u201cThey are subjected to an unwanted criminal investigation, which definitely has severe psychological trauma,\u201d Dr Narayanareddy said. \u201cPeople look at them with suspicion, and they are put on trial by society. Instead of supporting the victim, we suspect and blame them.\u201d<\/p>\n At the same time, girls are also vulnerable to psychological issues that can be associated with an unplanned pregnancy. \u201cPostnatal depression can happen, long term, she can have anxiety disorder, or depressive disorders,\u201d Dr Anitha said. \u201cShe might be scared to get intimate with anybody else after this, or an irrational fear of pregnancy can develop.\u201d<\/p>\n Health professionals, lawyers and socials workers that Scroll.in<\/em> spoke to all said that the fear of criminalisation and stigma pushes many families and teenage girls to seek unsafe abortions. As Padma Bhate-Deosthali, senior advisor and former coordinator, Centre for Enquiry into Health and Allied Themes, noted, \u201cThe biggest sufferers are teenage girls who are pregnant, whether after consensual sex or rape survivors, because you can\u2019t get a medical termination of pregnancy without an FIR.\u201d<\/p>\n T<\/strong>he POCSO law is used as a tool of moral policing primarily through two key sections: the one that deals with mandatory reporting, and another that pertains to the age of consent for sexual relations.<\/p>\n Among those who suffered under these provisions was Rani, a young girl from a small town in Tamil Nadu.<\/p>\n Rani was 15 when she met Pritam, who was just over 18. When the pair fell in love, Rani\u2019s parents were more than happy to help them settle down. The family was poor, and the parents saw the marriage as a move that could bring some stability to their daughter, who was a school dropout. Soon after, the married couple left the village to find greener pastures in the booming metropolis of Bengaluru.<\/p>\n Although Indian law prohibits marriage of girls under the age of 21<\/a> \u2013 until earlier this year the limit was 18 \u2013 there are, nevertheless, an estimated 24 million child brides<\/a> in the country. While a majority of these marriages are arranged by parents, there are some like Rani\u2019s that are initiated by the couples themselves.<\/p>\n A year later, towards the end of 2021, 16-year-old Rani went to the Gosha Hospital in Bengaluru for her delivery. She was nine months pregnant and unaware of the laws that had changed in the last decade. So it was to her shock that doctors informed the police about her.<\/p>\n In 2014, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare published a set of guidelines<\/a> pertaining to \u201cmedico-legal care for survivors\/victims of sexual violence\u201d. The guidelines state that a doctor examining a survivor of such violence has to seek her consent before examining her or collecting her samples, and before informing the police. She also has to be told that \u201cshe has the right to refuse to file an FIR\u201d without compromising on the treatment. <\/p>\n But mere guidelines are insufficient to make a significant change on the ground. As Dr Narayanareddy and his co-authors pointed out in a paper<\/a>, \u201cthe ministry\u2019s guidelines must be supported by corresponding legal amendments\u201d.<\/p>\n Child rights activists Scroll.in <\/em>spoke to agreed that POCSO was a well-thought out law in many other ways. It had features aimed at improving reporting of cases, such as a set of guidelines for setting up child friendly courts, and other guidelines to make the criminal justice system more accessible for children and parents.<\/p>\n \u201cThe new procedures and law wished to create a child-friendly atmosphere to convey that we are giving you an incentive to voluntarily report,\u201d Adenwalla explained. \u201cWe don\u2019t want to put the child through secondary traumatisation.\u201d <\/p>\n But the provisions of mandatory reporting countermand these measures. <\/p>\n Mandatory reporting in healthcare settings deters young girls from coming forward and seeking treatment, Bhate-Deosthali said. She suggested alternatives such as mandatory reporting to the child welfare committee or social workers, instead of the police.<\/p>\n \u201cThe law says that even if there is an apprehension that a sexual act is to be committed, it has to be reported to the police,\u201d explained Geetha Ramaseshan, lawyer, activist and trustee of Chennai-based organisation TULIR<\/a>, an organisation that works on the prevention and healing of child sexual abuse. \u201cI find it very harsh. So now we are looking into the future?\u201d <\/p>\n Researchers and experts have argued that forcing doctors to report such incidents to the police compromises the principles of doctor-patient confidentiality and informed consent. \u201cMandatory reporting, therefore, raises concerns about the health professional\u2019s primary responsibility as a carer and stereotypes survivors as helpless people incapable of making decisions for themselves,\u201d the paper by Dr Narayanareddy noted.<\/p>\n The problems with mandatory reporting were only deepened by the changes that POCSO made to the age of consent in India. Until 2012, the age of consent for girls was set out as 16 years in Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code<\/a>,<\/u> which did not specify a corresponding age of consent for boys. POCSO raised the age of consent for all genders to 18 years. Even at the time of this change, activists, lawyers and doctors asked lawmakers to further lower the age further to 14. \u201cThe Parliament took a different, more moralistic view and raised it to 18,\u201d explained Dr Narayanareddy.<\/p>\n This meant that an 18-year-old who entered into a consensual relationship with a 16-year-old would be committing a crime under Indian law. <\/p>\n In tandem, these two legal provisions created the perfect storm for unsuspecting teenagers, as Rani and Pritam discovered.<\/p>\n Once they had been intimated, police charged Pritam with penetrative sexual assault under POCSO, and other offences, and sent him to jail. <\/p>\n The cruelty of the couple\u2019s fate was particularly stark in light of what Rani had been through some years earlier. When she was 12 years old, she was abused twice by men in her village. Her parents reported the incidents to the police, who filed cases under the POCSO Act. While one person was caught and sentenced, the other case remains open and unsolved.<\/p>\n Now Pritam, the one person with whom she had had a consensual relationship, was charged under the same law as the abusers from her village.<\/p>\n Rani was deeply upset with the doctors. She had trusted them. She came to the hospital in her hour of need. In her eyes, they\u2019d allowed the police to take away the one person whom she relied on.<\/p>\n A doctor familiar with Rani\u2019s case said that at one point, her parents and in-laws arrived in the city, and resorted to protesting day and night outside the hospital. They were angry with the doctors for informing the police.<\/p>\n Doctors working at government hospitals, lawyers and social workers told Scroll.in<\/em> that such incidents were not uncommon when young people\u2019s relationships were reported to the police. Teenagers run away from the hospital the minute they know that they have to be reported to the police. Parents and children beg, plead and cry. Parents attempt out of court settlements, which are not allowed in POCSO cases \u2013 once filed, these cases can\u2019t be withdrawn even if both parties want to withdraw them. Children are forced into committing to marriage \u2013 seen as a way to save the girl\u2019s honour, and improve the boy\u2019s chances of persuading a judge that he is not a criminal. In some cases, the couple themselves plead to be let go on the promise that they will marry when they turn 18.<\/p>\n Back at the ward, Rani undertook her own form of protest. She refused to cooperate with the police and doctors, who sought her consent to conduct the physical examination, collect forensic evidence and fill the medico-legal forms. If Rani\u2019s consent in her relationship was invalid, she would not consent to this either.<\/p>\n Doctors familiar with Rani\u2019s case said they found themselves stuck between the patient and her family on one hand, and the police on the other. The police wanted to wash their hands off the case and transfer it back to Rani\u2019s village in Tamil Nadu.<\/p>\n The healthcare worker familiar with the case told Scroll.in <\/em>that Rani left the hospital between ten days and two weeks after her protest. The social worker did not track the progress of the case beyond that point.<\/p>\n I<\/strong>t isn\u2019t only the government that wields the POCSO law to oppressive ends. In the hands of parents, the law is a particularly powerful tool to enforce patriarchy, caste, and religious norms, by dictating the girl\u2019s choice of partner. As the HAQ-FACSE study noted, in a \u201clarge number of cases of \u2018romantic relationship\u2019\u201d that were entering the criminal justice system, \u201cthe male is shown as the abuser, as it is the parent of the female child\u2026 who informs the police. In some cases, not only is the male partner\u2019s bail plea rejected, but he is also convicted.\u201d<\/p>\n Dr Sylvia Karpagam, a public health researcher, recounted a case from rural Karnataka where a girl\u2019s family filed a POCSO case because the boy was from a different caste. The girl\u2019s parents wanted her to marry within the same dominant caste group. She grew upset with her parents and refused to return home. She was subsequently sent to a shelter home by the Child Welfare Committee.<\/p>\n Life in these shelters is far from comfortable. A 2020 report titled Why Girls Run Away to Marry<\/em><\/a>, for which researchers spoke to girls who had left their homes, as well healthcare workers, social workers and others who were tasked with responding to children and adolescents, noted that the time that a girl spends in a shelter home is \u201clargely a period of confinement\u201d and that the girls \u201care not allowed to leave the home without permission\u201d. In the period under study, and the shelter homes covered, \u201csome of the girls … would turn aggressive and violent with the staff; many girls suffered from depression, while some contemplated suicide\u201d, the report cited counsellors as saying.<\/p>\n And yet, the report found, sometimes girls choose to live at shelter homes \u201cto avoid abuse and harassment by the parents\u201d. Dr Karpagam observed, \u201cWe think it\u2019s all hunky-dory in the homes of these girls. We have zero data on the violence faced by girls in their natal homes.\u201d<\/p>\n Andrew Sesuraj, activist and convener of Child Rights Watch, Tamil Nadu, recalled one instance in Salem district when a 16-year-old who was facing domestic abuse at home forced her 18-year-old male best friend to elope with her. Her parents were pressuring her to get married to an older man. The two ran away but were found by the police a few days later. Her friend was booked for abduction, and the girl was forced to go back to her parents.<\/p>\n Kushalappa said that in such cases, families act out against young girls for supposedly bringing dishonour to the family. \u201cThe family gets furious with the girls for the inconvenience that they are put through,\u201d she said. \u201cThe families blame the girls for social backlash, setbacks and stigma.\u201d <\/p>\n T<\/strong>he judiciary has been taking note of the problems with POCSO cases.<\/p>\n In 2019, the Madras High Court acquitted a young man above the age of 18 who was accused of kidnap and penetrative assault of a girl younger than 18 \u2013 although the girl had refuted all the charges against him. Justice V Parthiban observed<\/a> that in such cases, of consensual relationships, \u201cit is always a question mark as to how such relationship could be defined, though such relationship would be the result of mutual innocence and biological attraction.\u201d He recommended that, \u201cAny consensual sex after the age of 16\u2026 can be excluded from the rigorous provisions of the POCSO Act.\u201d<\/p>\n In a 2021 case, Justice Anand Venkatesh of the Madras High Court observed<\/a> that the law \u201cdid not intend to bring within its scope or ambit, cases of nature where adolescents or teenagers involved in romantic relationships are concerned\u201d. <\/p>\n Also in 2021, Justice Subramonium Prasad of the Delhi High Court noted that it had become a \u201ctrite and unfortunate practice\u201d for police to file cases under POCSO \u201cat the best of the family of a girl who objects to her friendship and romantic involvement with a young boy\u201d. He added that the law was \u201cbeing misapplied and subsequently misused\u201d.<\/p>\n While welcoming these interventions, Adenwalla pointed out that they were not sufficient, and that lawmakers needed to act too. \u201cYou need to recognise this, admit it was a mistake and review this,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n A common suggestion that most experts Scroll<\/em>.in spoke to made was that the age of consent needed to be lowered back to 16. Many even suggested that the law should take a different view of teenagers who were in consensual relationships with young adults where the age gap was within a set permissible limit.<\/p>\n These are sometimes referred to as \u201cRomeo and Juliet laws\u201d, wherein some degree of protection is offered to \u201csexual offenders\u201d where the minor has consented to the sexual intercourse, and the age between the two is not considerable. In his judgement, Justice Parthiban suggested that POCSO could be amended \u201cto the effect that the age of the offender ought not to be more than five years or so than the consensual victim girl of 16 years or more\u201d.<\/p>\n Ramaseshan argued that, \u201cThe law does not make any difference between sexuality and sexual violence\u201d and that the legal system \u201cchooses to treat young persons as infantile.\u201d For now, these cases are \u201cclogging the criminal justice system,\u201d she pointed out.<\/p>\n A 2017 study<\/a> by the Centre for Child and the Law at the National Law School of India University, or NLSIU, found that \u201cthe criminalization of sexual experimentation has burdened Special Courts\u201d.<\/p>\nThe longest battle of Padma\u2019s life began when doctors informed the police of her pregnancy.<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/s01.sgp1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com\/inline\/tdkshmcpdo-1646120071.jpeg\" "\\"Several")
\n
\n\u201cThe moment we say this\u201d \u2013 teenage sex \u2013 \u201cwill lead to a criminal investigation, people will not come to the hospital. As a result, the health burden will continue,\u201d he said.<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/s01.sgp1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com\/inline\/zfijdbnkxs-1646135177.jpg\" "\\"As")
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/s01.sgp1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com\/inline\/bwaellwmbq-1646136224.jpg\" "\\"Experts")
\u201cYou can\u2019t have both, coercion and voluntary reporting,\u201d Adenwalla said.<\/h3>\n
A social worker familiar with the case, who recounted its details to Scroll.in<\/em>, said that Rani delivered her child all alone, in a dingy hospital labour ward.<\/h3>\n
\n\u201cThey\u2019d rather that she\u2019d be in a shelter home than be with this boy from a different caste,\u201d Dr Karpagam said.<\/h3>\n
\nThe judge also noted, \u201cIt is high time that the legislature takes into consideration cases of this nature involving adolescents involved in relationships and swiftly brings in necessary amendments under the Act. <\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/s01.sgp1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com\/inline\/qdftylnpia-1646120212.jpg\" "\\"Courts")