High Court of Jammu and Kashmir: A division bench comprising of Badar Durrez Ahmed, CJ., and Dhiraj Singh Thakur, J., recently dealt with a petition wherein the counsel for the petitioner approached the Court to discuss the issue of child abuse and frame directions to prevent it particularly in schools. He suggested that an officer be designated to each school, who is sensitized to these issues such as the lack of awareness amongst children, how children usually suffer in silence and knows how to deal with the issues.
The Court accepted the suggestions made by the petitioner and held that since no such action had been taken by the respondents to create awareness and appoint teachers as well as install helpline numbers for children to report abuse cases and for that purpose set up an appropriate Social Welfare Department that would prescribe a manner of creating awareness in schools regarding child abuse. [Shivan Mahajan v. State of J&K, 2018 SCC OnLine J&K 56, order dated 9.2.2018]
