Centre launches scheme for minors abandoned by kin due to rape-related pregnancy

The Centre is coming up with a scheme for the medical and legal aftercare of rape and gang rape survivors in POCSO cases if they are abandoned by their families. The women and child development ministry is setting aside Rs 74.10 crore under the Nirbhaya Fund, and the beneficiaries will be able to access legal aid, medical care, and police assistance.

WCD minister Smriti Irani said that this additional support will be available at the child care institutions (CCIs) for survivors of penetrative assault upto to the age of 18, and aftercare will be extended to the survivor till the age of 23.

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“Recognising the physical and emotional trauma a minor victim of rape or aggravated sexual assault undergoes and in certain circumstances when such victims of rape become pregnant, we in the WCD ministry have decided to provide medical, and infrastructural support apart from financial support to such minor victims who are in need of under the aegis of Nirhaya scheme,” Irani said.

The scheme will be administratively run under Mission Vatsalya, the ministry’s section for child welfare schemes. “We have additionally leveraged the administrative structure of Mission Vatsalya in collaboration with state governments and CCIs to actualise this support to minor victims on the ground,” she said, adding that the government has accelerated access to justice for minor victims of rape by establishing 415 POCSO fast track courts in the country.

As per NCRB data, in 2021, over 51,863 cases were reported under the POCSO Act, of which 64 per cent or 33,358 cases were of penetrative sexual assault and aggravated penetrative sexual assault. In 99 per cent of these 33,348 cases, the survivor was a girl child.

WCD officials said that under the scheme, the emergency and non-emergency services accessible to the survivor apart from medical care, include access to education, psychological and mental counselling, and insurance cover for the survivor and the new born child, besides police assistance. Under medical care, the survivor will have access to maternity, neonatal and infant care.

The ministry said that it will not be mandatory for the girl child to file an FIR to access the fund. CCI workers will have to provide the survivor with a safe space, and a case worker will be assigned to her.