The Cabinet on Friday approved death penalty for aggravated sexual assault against children below the age of 18 years as part of amendments in the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO Act).
The amendments, amounting to 14 including the introduction of new sections, aims to make punishments for crime against children more stringent, including offences in the digital space. These include amendments to Sections 4, 5 and 6 of the Act to increase punishments from seven to 10 years, from 10 to 20 years and from 20 to life imprisonment and death.
Welcoming the amendments, BJP MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar said that a lot needs to be done in prosecution of such cases. "While these cases are to be tried within one year, in reality most cases take a long time. Witnesses turn hostile and the long period of investigation and prosecution means that parents withdraw these cases. Speedier investigations will ensure justice in these cases," said Chandrasekhar, who is also a child rights activist.
Enakshi Ganguly of the HAQ Centre for Child Rights said that death penalty will do very little to secure justice. "Death penalty is not the solution. Only rightful conviction has ever brought down such cases. In fact, these changes will only end up putting the lives of children in danger, as perpetrators will end up killing them to smother evidences. This is a populist move aimed to garner more praise ahead of the elections," said Enakshi.
Amendments in Section 9 aim to provide a cover for sexual assault of children during natural calamities and disasters, in addition to cases in which they are administered with hormones to aid in penetrative sexual assault.
After the Kathua gangrape-murder case, Union Women and Child Development minister Maneka Gandhi had proposed the amendments.
Law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said, "The modification is made to address the need for stringent measures required to deter the rising trend of child sex abuse in the country."
Apart from that, amendments to sections 14 and 15 of the Act aim to regulate child pornography, by proposing proposed punishments ranging from a fine of Rs 1,000 to imprisonment for seven years for storing, not deleting or reporting and producing child pornography for commercial purposes. The amendments also penalises the transmitting of pornographic material to children and proposes a synchronising with the IT Act.
"Penal provisions have been made more stringent for storing/possessing any pornographic material in any form involving a child for commercial purpose," said a government release. Earlier this year, the Madhya Pradesh state government announced the death penalty as punishment for sexual assault against children.
Praveen Ghuge, chairperson of Maharashtra State Commission for Protection of Child Rights said that with the earlier act, a juvenile accused could walk away after serving a small sentence. "In some cases they also received compensation from the government. However, the recent amendment is a strong message to parents and teens to be more sensitive towards crimes against minors. We hope that the crime against children will come down drastically," he said.
Santosh Shinde, founder of Vidhayak Bharti, a Mumbai-based NGO, said that we need to work more with men and boys to bring awareness on the issue. "The fear of punishment needs to be imbibed. Capital punishments alone won't solve the problem," Shinde said.
A few days ago, Chandrasekhar had written a letter to law and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad asking him to review and amend the IT Act, 2000 to prevent digital child sex abuse. Chandrashekhar said that the government has done "very little" to crack down digital child sex abuse. He alleged that while the IOT Act covers a lot, it fails to prosecute apps that are coming up with content that are grooming children to be sexually exploited.
Stringent Laws to Protect Kids
- Death penalty in aggravated sexual offences against children below 18 years under POCSO
- Sections 4, 5, 6, 9, 14, 15 and 42 of POCSO to be amended to provide an option of stringent punishment including death penalty
- Fine for not destroying child porn material or reporting child pornography
- Protect kids from sexual offences in times of natural calamities and disasters
- Punishment for administering hormone or chemical substance to minors to attain early sexual maturity for the purpose of penetrative sexual assault
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