Ethics · 29 Aug 2026

Section 19 POCSO mandatory reporting

Assertion (A): A government hospital's staff can be legally bound under Section 19 of the POCSO Act to report a suspected case of child sexual abuse the moment it comes to their knowledge.
Reason (R): A legal duty to report automatically ensures that institutions develop the institutional reflex to act on it, regardless of who within the institution the report might implicate.
Which one of the following is correct in respect of the above two statements?

ABoth A and R are true and R is the correct explanation of A

BBoth A and R are true, but R is NOT the correct explanation of A

CA is true, but R is false

DA is false, but R is true

This question is based on: A Hospital That Was Bound by Law to Report a Crime Instead Helped Hide It

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About this question

Why in news

A tribal minor allegedly abused by her school headmaster died after a hospital sweeper allegedly helped arrange an abortion instead of the hospital reporting her pregnancy under Section 19 of the POCSO Act, with police also delaying the case's treatment as a confirmed crime and initially not invoking the SC/ST Act.

Why for UPSC

This is a classic GS4 case-study probe - testing whether a candidate can separate a clear legal/constitutional duty from the institutional culture needed to actually enforce it, a distinction UPSC repeatedly builds ethics questions around.

Prelims summary

Section 19 of the POCSO Act creates a mandatory reporting duty on institutions like hospitals, but a legal obligation alone does not guarantee institutional compliance when reporting would implicate people within the same institution.

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