Background:-

1. Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) is endemic, and devastates a victim for lifetime.
2. According to Ministry of Women and Child Development estimate, 53% of children have faced Child Sexual Abuse in their lives.
3. There are increasing incidences of sexual assault against young children.Crime in India, 2016 revealed that 19,920 children were allegedly victims of child rape in 2016 alone. However, the conviction in 2016 for such crimes stood at an abysmal 28.2 per cent

Recent move:-

1. Haryana and Rajasthan joined Madhya Pradesh in introducing the death penalty for rape of a child below the age of 12 years. Maharashtra and Karnataka too are considering it.
2. These amendments provide a judge with the option of imposing the death penalty, and also increase the mandatory minimum sentence from 10 to 14 years.

How plugging gaps in justice system will reduce child sexual abuse and how death penalty is not the solution :-

Systemic gaps:-

1. One of the reasons for low conviction rates is the vast majority of victims turning hostile.
2. Where children do testify against the accused, several systemic gaps such as lapses in investigation, lack of child-friendly procedures, challenges related to age-determination, poor appreciation of the testimony of the child adversely affect the conviction rate.

Effective implementation of POCSO act:-

1. Without effective implementation of the law, a death penalty will not work in reducing crime.
2. The mandatory minimum sentences for sexual offences was already increased by the POCSO Act and the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 2013 specifically to address growing sexual crimes. These penalties are rendered meaningless in the face of thousands of crimes that go acquitted, or worse, undetected.
3. Acquittals are the norm as Section 42A of the POCSO Act is not aligned with the social reality of normal sexual exploration among teenagers and the belief about the sanctity of marriage held by most judges, prosecutors, and the police.
4. The POCSO’s approach fails to recognise the autonomy and evolving capacity of children, particularly adolescents.

This alone will not help:-
It is unlikely that the alarming rates of child sexual abuse will decrease without the implementation of child protection units at the district level, along with Life skills based education in school curricula and willingness at home to openly talk about the issue.

Effects of imposing the death penalty will be short term:-

• There are several countries where the death penalty is executed but still the child abuse rate has not seen a significant decrease.
• Awarding the death penalty requires the highest level of proof, hence trials are far more rigorous and painstaking than those for other punishments such as life imprisonment. Hence, child and minor victims would be required to testify and re-testify for years to come, and this would only add to the trauma that they have already suffered

More needs to be done:-

• Low rates of conviction do not even have the effect of creating a fear of accountability in the first place. There is a need to urgently devise ways to bolster the existing criminal justice and child protection systems and ensure higher convictions, higher reporting of offences etc.
• Children in slums with working-class parents also badly need crèches or child-care centres to ensure that there are safe spaces available for them while their parents are away.
• Sexual abuse of children cannot be addressed in isolation from domestic violence faced by women inside their homes. Survivors of such violence need structured support to enable and empower them to approach the police and courts. Public campaigns are also needed to educate the wider public about consent, autonomy and bodily integrity of children
• Also parents and teachers need to make children aware about the right and wrong touch etc.
• Parliament and the Supreme Court need to consider the South African Constitutional Court’s conclusions in Teddy Bear Clinic for Abused Children v. Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development (2013), in which provisions that criminalised consensual sexual conduct of adolescents between 12 and 16 years were held unconstitutional. At the same time, the government and courts cannot be oblivious to sexual violence within personal relationships.

Conclusion:-

It’s high time that India prioritises the protection of children in all legal and policy agendas, while implementing the already existing child safeguarding mechanisms.