EDITORIALS

Economic & Political Weekly EPW august 11, 2012 vol xlviI no 32
9
T
he Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill 2012 recently approved
by the union cabinet for introduction in Parliament has
attracted cheers and criticism in equal measure. The Bill,
which deals with laws on sexual violence and proposes to include
acid attacks under stand-alone provisions in the Indian Penal
Code (IPC) as well as provide for punishment to perpetrators of
sexual assault in police custody, shelter and remand homes and
hospitals, has been uniformly welcomed. However, it is the
move to widen the scope of sexual offence by replacing the term
rape with sexual assault and to make the offence gender-
neutral that has led to differences of opinion between advocates
of womens rights and those of the sexual minorities.
Gay rights activists who demanded that Section 377 of the IPC
which criminalises sexual activity against the order of nature
be struck down have also asked for the crime of rape to be made
gender-neutral. They welcome the contemplated changes as men
facing sexual violence from men as well as young boys (and girls)
sexually abused by older men will now be covered by the law.
However, a section of womens rights activists have pointed out
the potential negative fallout for women when these changes
are made. In 2011, the National Crime Records Bureau recorded
a little over 2.25 lakh crimes against women. Compared to other
crimes, the rate of reported rapes had increased dramatically.
Making rape gender-neutral will lead to dilution of the serious-
ness of the crime, they feel. Second, it will leave women and
girls open to harassment since the law can be used against them
despite the fact that sexual crimes by women against men are so
rare that they are unheard of in the country. At the same time,
widening the scope of the offence will help victims who face
equally horrifying sexual violence that is not counted as rape if
it does not involve penile penetration. Such crimes are presently
tried under Section 354 which talks of outraging the modesty
of a woman and is a bailable offence carrying a maximum sen-
tence of two years and a minimum one of a mere ne.
The new Bill proposes punishment for sexual assault for a mini-
mum of seven years which may extend to imprisonment for life
and a ne. For aggravated sexual assault by a police ofcer within
his jurisdiction or a public servant or person in position of authority,
the punishment will be not less than 10 years rigorous imprison-
ment which may extend to life imprisonment and also a ne.
It raises the age of consent from 16 to 18 years and yet pro-
poses that the sexual intercourse by a man with his wife who
may be under 16 years of age cannot be termed as sexual
assault. This ies in the face of the Child Marriage Act that lays
down the marriageable age for the girl at 18 years. Again, the
Bill is silent on the issue of marital rape, a form of sexual violence
faced by two-thirds of married women in the country between
the ages of 15 and 49 years according to the UN Population
Fund. It is also among the most underreported of crimes.
The Bill seeks to insert Sections 326A and 326B in the IPC in order
to make acid attack a specic offence carrying a maximum impri-
sonment of 10 years and a minimum of one year. In the past few
weeks, the media has been focusing on the case of 27-year-old
Sonali Mukherjee from Jharkhand. Blinded and left near-
incapacitated in an acid attack in 2003 by three men, she has under-
gone 22 facial surgeries and is near-destitute. The three men are
not only out on bail but are threatening her because she had regis-
tered complaints with the police. In fact, in 2008 the National
Commission for Women (NCW) had proposed a separate law to try
such cases and set up an assistance board for victims. Legal activists
say that if there is a prima facie case against the accused, no bail
should be granted at all and the government should mandatorily
provide protection to the victim. Similarly, it should also provide
monetary help since the multiple surgeries following acid attacks
are costly and need intense post-operative care. In neighbouring
Pakistan, where acid attacks have reached horrifying proportions
(a documentary Saving Face based on such horrifying acts won
the Oscar this year), not even a law carrying imprisonment for life
has acted as a deterrent. The reasons are not alien to us weak
police investigation, the patriarchal and chauvinistic attitude of
the police towards the victim, witnesses turning hostile and so on.
In the ultimate analysis, while a stringent law is a great help
in battling socio-gender crimes, its implementation rests heavily
on the sensitive attitude and efcacy of the law and order, and
judicial system backed by political will. Sadly for the victims,
these are attributes conspicuous by their absence.
A Gender-Neutral Law on Sexual Violence
A stringent law is welcome but will the police and judicial machinery pitch in?