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 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.

The POCSO Act was intended to protect children from sexual crimes. But the law is frequently used against young couples in consensual romantic relationships. Read more to find out how and why: https://scroll.in/article/1018472/the-law-that-criminalises-sex-between-young-people-in-india