The Department of Children Welfare and Special Services has sent a show cause notice to Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) Chennai, after The News Minute reported that a state-sponsored study outsourced to VIT had endangered the safety of POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses) survivors.
TNM had reported that, in a severe breach of privacy, personal details of POCSO survivors, including names, addresses, contact information, and case information, were handed over to unvetted students and graduates, to conduct a study titled ‘Impact assessment on POCSO victim compensation.’
The study, sanctioned by the Tamil Nadu State Child Protection Society and the Department of Social Defense in January 2023, was awarded to Dr V Vijayalakshmi, Associate Professor of Sociology, School of Social Sciences and Languages at VIT. Although the state in July 2024 halted the study due to privacy concerns, the authorities made no effort to retrieve and ensure security for the data, leaving survivors vulnerable to potential harm and exploitation.
Read: TN govt-sponsored study compromised privacy of POCSO survivors
Director of the Department of Children Welfare and Special Services, Johny Tom Varghese IAS, told TNM, “We have sent a show cause notice to the institute and the principal researcher and are awaiting their response. The department had asked the institute to adhere to POCSO guidelines. Strict action will be initiated against the concerned parties if we find a violation of POCSO protocols.”
TNM reported that the principal researcher V Vijayalakshmi had recruited students/graduates through WhatsApp without screening nor training to conduct field investigations on child sexual assault survivors.
Although the government had halted the study in July, VIT’s website claimed that the research project was in progress as of November 19, 2024. The institute took down the project from their list of funded research projects after TNM reported on the privacy breach.