Sex at 16, Child at 17, Marriage at 18!

The Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2013 lowers the age of consent for sex from 18 to 16 years and makes 'rape' as a gender-specific offence under which men only can be charged for it. Bullet points here:

1. Stalking, voyeurism have been defined as criminal offences in the bill. Sustained stalking will be a non-bailable offence.
2. The bill uses the term 'rape' which will be gender-specific, in contrast to the gender-neutral 'sexual assault' as proposed in the ordinance.
3. The measure, on the lines of the ordinance, has not touched on the issue of making marital rape a separate offence.
4. The bill also lowers the age of consent for sex from 18 to 16 years. In the ordinance, it was 18 years.

I do not have much to say on the first three bullets except that there should be sufficient safeguards, including harsh penalty for lodging false cases. Only this way, we can avoid the misuse of this law. If this is not put in place early, this will lead to a huge divide between societies, families to be specific.

On the fourth point, I can only restate the title of this post, ‘Sex at 16, Child at 17, Marriage at 18’!

By clearing the bill, the eGoM stated that the legal age for sex is 16 and that of marriage at 18. I just filled in the blanks. I do agree with Ms. Tirath, with a different perspective, who said that lowering the juvenile age would put the immature children under the risk of being treated as grown-up criminals.

They are busy deciding the age for sex and are forgetting of the major issues like corruption and inflation.Seems UPA is spending 'sleepless nights'. With this ending note, I have a busy day ahead and yes, a sleepy night then!