Sexual education a must to fight rape, say experts

Hyderabad,: Rape on girls, even infants, has become commonplace now and acts of sexual depravity have ceased to shock the society. What’s also worrisome is the rapid rise in the number of boys getting involved in sexual offences.

Additional commissioner of police, Shikha Goel, said here on Friday that 75 per cent of the cases of rapes on minors had happened in the age group of 15-18. Studies have also observed that rapes nowadays are committed more by known family members and neighbours. Trust plays an important role. Young minds get wooed easily and fall prey to such evil designs.

As per research, there is a healthy sexual activity/exploration in the age group of 16-18 both among boys and girls. Because the age of consent has been raised to 18, sexual activity under 18 has become a punishable crime. In many cases, parents who are opposed to their daughters making sexual choices have tended to use criminal law to control their daughters and punish the men with whom they tried having sexual intimacy.

While the United Nations continues to promote democracy as the best system to secure women’s dignity and rights, India as the world's largest democracy fails to ensure full protection to the nation's women.

Rape is the fourth most common crime against women in India. A rape case is registered every 15 minutes but justice in most cases is delayed or denied.

Organisations campaigning against rape try to teach women how to defend and protect themselves. What is also important is to teach such accused not to indulge in such actions and impose harsher sanctions, and also ensure justice is served promptly.

According counseling psychologist Dr. Diana Monteiro, parents should begin ‘educating’ their children at a young age so that they feel comfortable speaking about such aspects.

"Youngsters now are getting exposed to pornographic material on the net. This, combined with a lack of proper supervision and moral guidance, leads children to acts like rape,” she added.

Shikha Goel said, “We encourage greater reporting of such issues to bring awareness among people, to help them come forward and seek police help. This would start the criminal justice process and legal action will be 'deterrent' not only to the accused in a particular case but a deterrent for any person who’s likely to commit such offences.”

Law prescribes death penalty for those who rape minors. However, a problem arises where the rapists themselves are minors.

“Law is strict, but implementation is not. Due to societal pressure, many don’t open up or come forward to make things public. Only emotionally strong people come out and seek judicial help. I think it is important that people get assurance from the government that the victims will be looked after well, and it’s also important that their details are kept confidential,” says S Gowtham, Telangana high court advocate.

Confessing that less than 10 per cent of the victims seek assistance from law enforcement, a woman requesting anonymity said many who faced sexual violence do not report or come forward to make statements about their experiences due to family-related fears or the fear of not being accepted in the society and of receiving no support from their parents.

According to Section 82 of the IPC, 1860, “Nothing is an offence that is done by a child under seven years of age.”

Thus, Section 82 grants absolute immunity to children below seven years of age from criminal liability. Law presumes a child less than seven years of age to be doli incapax. This is a Latin term meaning, ‘incapable of evil.’

Underage perpetrators

Around 1,013 cases were registered against juveniles in Telangana in 2020. Of these, 50 crimes were committed against women and 72 persons had been accused of rapes.

In India, 5,974 cases were registered against juveniles in 2020. A total of 7,475 juveniles were apprehended in 5,974 cases, out of which 6,774 were arrested under IPC cases and 701  under special and local laws (SLL) in metropolitan cities in 2020.

A majority (75.5 per cent) of juveniles in conflict with law apprehended under Indian Penal Code (IPC) & SLL were in the age group of 16 -18 (5,644 out of 7,475) in 2020.

Orders courts have passed in recent years:

“Will you marry her?” Supreme Court asks government servant charged with repeatedly raping minor girl.

In a recent judgment, Bombay HC’s Nagpur bench ruled that the act of groping a child’s breast, without any skin-to-skin contact, is not sexual assault under the law.

Allahabad High Court has observes that 'oral sex' with a minor does not come under the 'aggravated sexual assault' category in the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act