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At a time when the child sexual abuse cases are becoming the order of the day in the country, the Indian Government's decision to introduce a law to exclusively deal with the child sexual abuse cases is a welcome step. It will go a long way in dealing with growing menace of child sexual abuse, which should be rooted our from the country.
The ‘Sexual Offences Against Children Bill, 2010', which is at the drafting stage, proposes to set up of special courts, special public prosecutors and child-friendly proceedings to expedite the cases related to child abuse. The new law seeks to substitute the word ‘rape' with technical terms and cover several forms of abuse of both boys and girls, which now remain grey areas in the absence of a specific legislation. While the proposed bill defines a person below the age of 18 as a child, it permits sex between people above the age of 16 years if it meets 14 conditions that define consent.
The bill also proposes to cover IT-aided crime against children and it will be a comprehensive law to protect children against all forms of sexual abuse. Under the new law, there will be special courts and special prosecutors in every district in the country to try child sexual abuse cases, and the evidence from the children be recorded within a month of the court taking cognizance and the trial be completed within a year.
The child sexual abuse cases at presently are being tried under the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which does not always take into consideration the age of the victim. With such offences attracting only such sections that deal with rape, unnatural offences and outraging the modesty of a woman, many sexual offences against children, especially those against boys, were not getting a focussed trial. The new law will deal with all these issues.
Under the new law, once it is implemented, the child offenders will be prosecuted for penetrative sexual assault, aggravated penetrative sexual assault, sexual assault, aggravated sexual assault and sexual harassment. While penetrative sexual assault covers all kinds of penetration using body parts or objects, the other acts come under sexual assault. Sexual harassment covers abuse of a child using gestures and spoken words.
The term ‘aggravated' is prefixed to offences when the perpetrator is a person who wields power by virtue of being in a position of authority or trust or when the victim has a mental or physical disability. It recommends punishments ranging from three years in jail for ‘sexual harassment' to life imprisonment for ‘aggravated sexual assault.'
The proposed special courts for offences against children would also hear cases pertaining to child abuse as defined under the Information Technology Act, which includes abuse through the internet and child pornography.
Given the increasing number of child sexual abuse cases in the country, the government should take measures to expedite the introduction of the bill.
