After introducing death penalty in child abuse law Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act 2012, a new bill in the Rajya Sabha seeks the amendment of Indian Penal Code to make sexual crimes gender neutral by including men and transgenders in addition to women who are vulnerable to such crimes.
The proposed bill called the Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2018 seeks to replace the word "man" with "whoever" in the text of current law to make it inclusive for all genders.
The proposed bill said, ¡°provide for effective protection of the Constitutional Rights of all persons vulnerable to sexual exploitation and offences, to punish acts of sexual assault and rape of all persons including but not limited to men and transgender persons in addition to the protection afforded to women under the existing penal laws and punish offenders of any sex or gender there to.¡±
The bill, also seeks insertion of a definition of ¡°modesty¡± in the existing law.
BCCL
The proposed bill read, ¡°the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948 to give effect to its commitment to protect the human rights of equality and protection from discrimination of all individuals.
¡°¡India, being a signatory to and having ratified the aforesaid Declaration, it is expedient to give effect to the said Declaration.¡±
It calls for the word ¡°transgender¡± be included after the words ¡°The pronoun ¡®he¡¯ and its derivatives are used of any person, whether male, female or transgender.
AP
There has been a growing clamour to make rape laws gender neutral and a major section of males and transgenders in the society are vulnerable to sexual offences.?
Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code stands, rape is something that only a man can do to a woman. There is no room for adult male victims, much less female perpetrators.
However, child survivors of both sexes are covered by the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act 2012. But the current rape laws leave out a large chunk of male and transgender population who are susceptible to sexual violence but could not get it registered or speak out about it.