MUMBAI, July 7 -- The Maharashtra government has decided to provide assistance to survivors of child sexual abuse by appointing "support persons" to render emotional, psychological and legal assistance to them. The support persons will protect the survivors and facilitate medical assistance, treatment and counselling for them to overcome their mental trauma. An order to this effect was issued by the state's women and child development department on Friday. The government has also decided to implement the model guidelines framed by the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) to regulate the 'support person' for the child sexual abuse victims. These steps come in the wake of the incident at a top city school where a 16-year-old male student was allegedly sexually taken advantage of by a female teacher for three months in the school and for a year and a quarter after her alleged dismissal. In its October 2023 verdict, the Supreme Court had said that the state was obliged to provide 'support persons' as per the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act 2023 to child victims of sexual offences, stressing that the appointment of these persons was not optional. While delivering the verdict, it also directed the NCPCR to frame guidelines, which were shared with all the states in August last year. According to the NCPCR guidelines, the trained support persons are expected to protect the survivors from external pressure, provide a witness protection scheme, accompany them during statement recording, investigation, medical examination or trial and help them access facilities like education. "A support person will have to be assigned by a child welfare committee in order to render assistance to the victim throughout the process of investigation and trial or the person who is assisting the victim during the trial under the Pocso Act," said a senior official from the WCD department. State woman and child development minister Aditi Tatkare said, "They will play a crucial role in helping children cope with the legal system and provide them with the support they require to effectively testify against their offenders."...