POCSO Now Includes Death Penalty For Rape With Minors But India Reluctant To Carry Out Death Sentences

In an effort to curb sexual offences against minors in the country, the Central government has amended and toughened the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

The Act now includes death penalty for aggravated sexual assault on children, besides providing stringent punishments for other crimes against minors.

The proposed changes in the Act also provide for fines and imprisonment to curb child pornography.

The government has stressed that amendment in the law will cater to the need for strong measures against rising numbers of child sex abuse cases in the country and fight the menace of relatively new kind of crimes.

"It intends to protect the interests of vulnerable children in times of distress and ensures their safety and dignity. The amendment is aimed at establishing clarity regarding the aspects of child abuse and punishment thereof," a PTI report said quoting officials.

The government, in a statement, said the amendments in Section-2, 4, 5, 6, 9, 14, 15, 34,42 and 45 of the POCSO Act, 2012, are being made to address the aspects of child sexual abuse in an appropriate manner.

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"Section-4, 5 and 6 are proposed to be amended to provide option of stringent punishment, including death penalty, for committing sexual assault and aggravated penetrative sexual assault crime on a child to protect the children from sexual abuse," quoted the report.

The amendment now also includes provision to protect children from sexual offences at times of natural calamities in the form of hormonal and chemical substance abuse to attain early sexual maturity for the purpose of trafficking and sexual assault.

Child pornography, a major issue in the country, will now attract fine for not destroying or deleting or reporting the pornographic material involving a child with an intention to share or transmit it.

But, just how much India believes in death sentences?

The reports of sexual violence against children are only increasing in numbers and resulted into widespread protests seeking to make country safer for women and children.

Acknowledging the growing public concern, the Indian government introduced the death penalty for anyone convicted of raping a child younger than 12 in April last year.

Latest data released by the Indian government shows that child rapes reported to the authorities doubled over the five years from 2012 to 2016.

After POSCO was introduced in 2012, the number of reported cases of child rape rose by nearly 45 per cent the next year.

NCRB data shows that around 30-40 per cent of the times, children (age ¨C 0-17) are the victims of rapes. In 2016, 43.3 per cent of the total female rape victims were minors.

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In 2016, around 13 per cent (2,116) of the minor female victims were of age 11 and below. The deceased victim in the Kathua rape case, an incident that stirred the nation, was also eight years old.

Despite proposing death penalty, India is a country that is reluctant to carry out death sentences.

In the Kathua rape and murder, a special court in Pathankot convicted six of the seven accused and handed out life sentence for three convicts.

In the 2012 Delhi gangrape and murder case, the Supreme Court upheld the death penalty for four convicts, ¡ª Mukesh, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma and Akshay Kumar Singh¡ªsaying the case fit the ¡°rarest of the rare" category.

Death sentence is only carried out in the ¡°rarest of rare¡± cases, the interpretation of which rests on the court. Last execution in the country was carried out on July 30, 2015.