Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala government on Tuesday decided to form a committee headed by the chief secretary to look into cases related to sexual exploitation of children under the Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO).
This comes in the wake of the recent acquittal of three accused in a POCSO case which pertains to the deaths of two sisters who were allegedly sexually abused and killed in Walayar town of Palakkad in 2017.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan chaired a high-level meeting to discuss POCSO cases and decided to form a committee under chief secretary Tom Jose with the aim to ensure efficient handling of cases and their disposal at the earliest.
Members of the committee will include secretaries of home, education, health, social justice, law, SC/ST development departments. The committee will submit its report to the state government once in two months. The chief minister said that counselling facilities should be made available for children in all schools and they should be encouraged to speak about any assault, including any inside their houses.
Training will be given to counsellors in this regard and an awareness of the law, he said.