The parliamentary standing committee on “Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Bill, 2011, has proposed to raise the age under which consensual sex should be considered as an offence from 16 years to 18 years.
Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) reads that “rape will be committed with or without consent when the woman is under 16 years of age”. However, the committee said that “once the age of the child has been specified as 18 years, the element of consent should be treated as irrelevant up to this age”. It added that “this would be in consonance with the country’s commitments towards UNCRC and the Juvenile Justice Act, 2000. Terming that women and child development ministry’s contention that age of consent be kept at “16 years” cannot be considered as “correct”, the committee suggested that “provisos to the clauses 3 and 7 of the proposed bill should be deleted to protect the rights of the child and for the sake of protecting children against abuse”.
This, even as the ministry justified for keeping the age of consent at 16 years consistent with the provisions of Sections 375 and 377 of the IPC and pointed to the emerging social reality regarding awareness, understanding an exposure of the adolescents, the committee suggested increase in the age.
Stressing on the need of module on “sex education” in the education system, the committee suggested that those involved in bringing up the children have to be sensitised about the vulnerability of children and need for protecting them from sexual offences. Suggesting a new title for the proposed bill, the Protection of Children and Prevention of Sexual Offences, 2011, the committee proposed inclusion of free and confidential counselling, support services for the victims by professionally trained counsellors, a multi-disciplinary approach for the care, treatment and rehabilitation of child victims etc.
The panel felt that there should be no multiplicity of institutions i.e. designated courts set up to address special situations would require infrastructure, trained manpower and other resources. The proposed bill says if a person commits sexual harassment if he uses words or shows body parts to a child with sexual intent, shows pornography to a child or threatens to depict a child involved in sexual act through the media.