India toughens its laws on rape

ADAY after India’s President Ram Nath Kovind gave his nod to an ordinance on death penalty for rapists who attack children, a citizen survey shows that 76% of the people agree with it.

India’s cabinet on Saturday approved the death penalty for rapists of girls below the age of 12, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi held an emergency meeting in response to nationwide outrage in the wake of a series of sexual assault cases.

The latest outpouring of national revulsion came after details emerged of the gang rape of an 8-year-old Muslim girl in a Hindu-dominated area of Jammu and Kashmir state.

According to the survey conducted by LocalCircles, 18% voted for life imprisonment without parole for convicted rapists, while 3% said it should be a seven-year jail term (which is the current law).

To catch the citizens’ pulse on the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, LocalCircles conducted six nation-wide polls which received more than 40 000 votes.

In the second poll, 89% agreed that they want their states to pass a law that awards the death penalty within six months.

Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh have also passed a law that awards the death penalty for child rape.

In another poll, which was about engaging more women officers to register cases of sexual assault, it was found that 78% of citizens were in support of every district level police station to have at least one woman officer.

There were 40 000 rapes reported in India in 2016, with 40% of victims being children.

The executive order amends the criminal law to also include more drastic punishment for convicted rapists of girls below the age of 16, government officials said.

The order will come into effect once it is signed by Kovind.

But in the meantime, suspects can be prosecuted using the order.

India previously launched fast-track courts and a tougher rape law, that included the death penalty, after a gruesome assault on a young woman shocked the country in 2012, but India’s rape epidemic has shown no sign of dying down.

Protests around the country were also prompted by the arrest of a politician from the BJP last week in connection with the rape of a teenager in Uttar Pradesh, a populous northern state that is governed by the party.

More recently, a sexual attack on an 11-year-old girl was reported in Modi’s home state of Gujarat.

The post-mortem revealed the girl had been tortured, raped, strangled and smothered.

Modi’s failure to speak out soon enough during the latest bout of public anger fuelled criticism that his government was not doing enough to protect women.

With a general election due next year, Modi moved swiftly to remedy that negative perception by holding the emergency cabinet meeting as soon as he returned from an official visit to Europe.

The cabinet also prescribed measures for stronger punishment and faster trials in rape cases.

In cases of the rape of a girl below the age of 16, the cabinet increased the minimum punishment to 20 years from 10 years.

The penalty for the rape of women was raised to 10 years from seven years.

However, the document made no mention of the rape of boys or men.