Castration is currently allowed for child sex offenders in countries like Russia, Estonia Poland, and several states in the United States, said the judge.
Dismissing a petition filed by a UK national to quash a case of child sex abuse against him, the Madurai bench of Madras High Court recently recommended castration of the accused, citing that it would "fetch magical results in preventing and containing child abuses."
Justice N Kirubakaran, while delivering the judgment, said that "The suggestion to castrate may look barbaric. But barbaric criminals needed barbaric punishment. The very thought of punishment should deter the criminal from committing the offence."
Castration is currently allowed for child sex offenders in countries like Russia, Estonia Poland, and several states in the United States, said the judge.
The case in question is against a British social worker who set up a child-care institute in Chinnammalpuram village, 40km from Tirunelveli. His child-care home, operated by his trust took care of 35 orphans, and would regularly take the children on trips. In 2011, the survivor, a 15-year-old boy, took the courage to go to a local child welfare NGO to complain against his ordeal.
Activists and experts, however, are not sure how the judgment will help the situation. Padma Bhate-Deosthali, of Centre for Enquiry Into Health and Allied Themes (CEHAT), a health advocacy body working on issues of violence, says that prescribing castration and the death penalty for rape is likely to result in increased murders of rape victims, and in delaying justice. "Grading the severity of the punishment in rape cases will not have any positive results, and there has been no evidence so far from countries that allow severe punishments. Chemical castration reinforces the myth that rape is the result of the sexual urge and needs to be suppressed, when it is actually an act of violence," said Bhate-Deosthali.
Even the Justice Verma Committee, formed in the aftermath of the December 16 gang-rape case, recommended that there should be no death penalty for rapists, and that the punishment should be rigorous imprisonment for seven years to life. It recommended any sexual assault that causes death or a "persistent vegetative state", should be penalised with rigorous imprisonment for a term not be less than 20 years to life. For gang-rape, followed by death, should be punished with life imprisonment.
Child sex abuse, under the The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO), 2012, criminalised sexual assaults on children, are punishable between three years to imprisonment for life, depending on the severity of the punishment. In addition to that, the definition of rape, as per the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013 extended the definition of rape under section 375 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) to include acts in addition to vaginal penetration such as the penetration of any object or any part of the body in the vagina, mouth, urethra or anus of the victim.
"Rape is now no longer just penile penetrations, and hence, castration is of no significance in the several other cases of sexual assault," says Padma.
Senior advocate CA Sundaram feels that the eye for an eye is not the solution for these cases. "Punishment like this are not viable to the legal structure of India. Will you cut off the hand of a pick pocket, if he is a repeated offender," said Sundaraman.
—With inputs from Prabhati Mishra
Child sex cases on the rise
The number of number of such cases has increased from 38,172 in 2012 to 58,224 in 2013 and to 89,423 in 2014 said Justice Kirubakaran. He added that, between 2008 and 2014, only 2.4% of child sex abuse cases have been convicted, while there was a 400% in such cases.
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