Thehansindia.com-Law on Sexual Violence Against Women and Children in India
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thehansindia.com http://www .thehansindia.com/posts/in dex/2015-01-28/Law-on -Sexual-Violenc e-against-Women-and-C hildren-in-India-12 8229 Law on Sexual Violence against Women and Children in India January 28,2015, 02.59 PM IST | Legal Provisions Concerning Sexual Violence against Women and Children in India Introduction: On 14th November , 2012, a new law was enacted, the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, which brought in major changes in the law relat ed to sexual violence, as far as children below 18 years are concerned. The aims and objectives of this Act were: • T o secure a child’s right to safety , security and protection from sexual abuse. • T o protect children from inducement or coercion to sexual activity • T o prevent exploitative use of children in prostitution and generation of pornographic material. • T o provide a comprehensive legislation to safeguard the interest of a child at every stage - reporting, recording of evidence, investigation and trial of offences. • T o provide for establishment of special courts for sensitive and speedy trial It made the law gender neutral and brought within its purview sexual assault of both girls and boys below the age of 18 years. It also widened the definition of sexual violence beyond the conventional peno-vaginal penetration to include crimes which did not amount to rape under the IPC. It also prescribed stringent punishment and many procedural safety measures to protect the child during investigation and trial. But this statute received hardly any media attention and the police continued to use the existing IPC sections in most cases of sexual assault on children. Things began to change only by January, 2013, when, after the gruesome gang rape and murder of a 23 year old para-medic in Delhi, there were widespread protests and international attention was drawn to the issue of sexual violence against women in India and the question whetherwe have adequate and stringent laws in place to address the issue became the point of debate in the media. In response, the government set up a committee headed by late Justice J.S. Verma to make recommendations forformulating a new law to deal with sexual violence. As per these recommendations a draft Bill was submitted to the Parliament, andwithout much delay, on 3rd April, 2013, the Amended law came into effect which changed the relevant sections in the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) and the Indian Evidence Act (IEA). With these changes the def inition of sexual violence and t he procedural aspects to provide safety to women and children are more or less, similar . The same are provided here below in a tabular form for easy reference. Important provisions under the POCSO Act , 2012
