The Indian Union Cabinet is set to clear a bill seeking to replace the post-Nirbhaya case ordinance dealing with crime against women which will reduce the age for consensual sex to 16 and reinstate rape as an offence specifically committed against women.
According to Indian media reports, the government has resolved differences on the two contentious aspects of the Criminal Law Amendment Bill, 2013, bowing to the demands of women’s groups who protested against the ordinance’s provisions making sexual assault a gender neutral crime.
With the new changes, the perpetrator in a crime of rape would be male while the victim female according to the law to be considered by the cabinet.
Settling divergent views on the age of consent was a more difficult task as the Women and Child Development Ministry pointed out that a recent law to protect children deemed anyone below 18 as a minor.
Official sources said there would be no contradiction between the two laws as the Supreme Court said that in cases of alleged elopement where the girl had acted in accordance to her free will, the age of consent to be considered was 16.
While the issue is likely to be debated by the cabinet, the Ministry of Home Affairs has taken the view that criminalising sex in the 16 to 18 age group is not warranted as it fails to take into account changing sexual mores.
With sexual contact between teens of this age increasingly common in both urban and rural areas and across social strata, it was felt that a tough law could be misused to settle scores or allow conservative opinion to harass youngsters.
Sources said that the law to protect children against sexual abuse dealt with incidents where no consent had been obtained and the criminal law amendment bill would not allow offenders a legal loophole.
The bill could also make rape by those in authority punishable by life sentence extending to the abuser’s natural life. Another likely change is making it mandatory for government and private hospitals to provide free medical assistance to victims of sexual crimes.
