CHENNAI: Child rights activists in the city on Saturday termed as unnecessary the Union Cabinet’s move to approve an ordinance that allowed courts to pronounce death penalty to those convicted of raping children up to 12 years of age.“It is an unnecessary ordinance,” said Sherin Bosko, co-founder of Nakshata, an organisation that works for child rape victims. “The issue is the government’s incapability to implement the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. All they have to do is implement the POCSO Act well and that itself will reduce the crimes against women and children,” Bosko said.
The POCSO Act provides for life imprisonment. After the Nirbhaya case in 2012, the Centre had introduced death penalty in cases where a woman either dies or is left in a vegetative state after rape.
Bosko said what was more important was to look at strengthening the implementation of the law and the role of stakeholders. “Many of the rapists get out on bail, that is a big failing,” she said. “It is the failure of the judicial system that needs to be addressed. These are the more important issues that need to be tackled. Under POCSO Act, cases are meant to be disposed of in a year, but still cases drag on for years, giving the accused a chance to defend themselves for four to five years.”
Activists reiterated that death penalty would not bring down crimes against women and children. “The death penalty is not the solution,” said Girija Kumar Babu, member of the District Juvenile Justice Board, and general secretary of Indian Council for Child Welfare (ICCW). “These kinds of crimes reflect a failure of the child protection system and it is better to see that the systems are functioning well than to provide a death sentence to those who are guilty. Anyone who is against capital punishment will oppose this decision,” she added.
Jayanthi Rani, an advocate and former member of Tamil Nadu Child Rights Commission, too echoed this sentiment. “We have enough and more laws to protect women and children,” she said. “The problem lies in implementation. It is imperative for investigating agencies, public prosecutors and judges to be sensitised about how to deal with these cases. Any sentence that is awarded is for reformation, and life imprisonment is a better option than death penalty. When it comes to death penalty, it cannot be executed immediately.”
The ordinance is looking at increasing the minimum punishment in case of rape of women from seven years to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment, which can also be extended to life imprisonment. The minimum punishment for rape of a girl under 16 years too has been increased from 10 years to 20 years, extendable to imprisonment for rest of life.