Supreme Court judge insists on need to ensure kids’ rights

Inaugurating a two-day national conference on Women and Children organised by the Tamil Nadu State Judicial Academy, he said while the realisation have set in among societies in India to treat women equally, the same cannot be said of children, when it comes to their care and protection. 

On citing the instance in Delhi, where a person claims to have molested as many as 1,000 children, the judge said the affected children are unable to speak out revealing that the children continue to languish without voices. 

Noting that the available Acts largely deal with child offenders, it’s a wonder whether we are looking after their rights as children and human beings and change mindset is surely required in this regard.

Justice Lokur also raised the aspect of the lack of control over social media and cyber space, where videos pertaining to humiliation and abuse of women and children are circulated. Noting that it’s a very serious challenge especially when even government websites get hacked, he said offenders get smarter to thwart a system and hence a  proactive approach is needed to stem this rot and safeguard the rights of children and women. 

Madras High Court, Chief Justice, Sanjay Kishan Kaul, who presided, pointed out that as many as 48 laws prevails for the protection of women but ultimately a lot depends on its enforcement and mere crafting of laws alone cannot become the solution. 

He also sought the participants to come out with guidance or a training manual on how to make the judiciary more sensitive while dealing with women and children.