The government on Wednesday informed the Rajya Sabha that it has no plans to reduce the age of consent for consensual relationships.
Responding to a query by Rajya Sabha MP and CPI leader Binoy Viswam about whether the government is considering any proposal to reduce the age of consent for a consensual relationship among teenagers from 18 to 16 years, Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani said the question “does not arise”.
Citing the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses (POCSO) Act, 2012, enacted to safeguard children from sexual abuse and sexual offences, the minister said that the act clearly defines a child as any person below the age of 18 years.
“The Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses (POCSO) Act, 2012, enacted by the Government of India to safeguard children from sexual abuse and sexual offences which clearly defines a child as any person below the age of 18 years,” Irani said.
The act was amended in 2019 to include harsher punishments, including the death penalty, for sexual crimes against children.The amendment was done to the sexual perpetrators and prevent such heinous crimes against children.
“In the case of an offence committed by a child, Section-34 of the POCSO Act already provides a procedure in the case of an offence committed by a child and determination of age by a special court,” the Union minister said.
“If any question arises in any proceeding before the Special Court whether a person is a child or not, such question shall be determined by the Special Court after satisfying itself about the age of such a person, and it shall record in writing its reasons for such a determination,” Irani said.
She also stated that the Majority Act of 1875 (as amended by the Indian Majority (Amendment) Act of 1999) establishes the age of majority at 18 years.
The recent case of Shraddha Walkar’s horrific murder by her partner Aftab Amin Poonawala, who later brutally disposed of her body parts in Delhi’s Mehrauli jungles, found an echo in Parliament.
RS member Narain Dass Gupta from NCT of Delhi asked the ministry if it had taken cognizance of the recent cases of violence, murder and dismemberment of women by their partners and if the ministry had consulted social scientists to understand the trends.
The minister responded, sighting details of policies, projects, and programmes undertaken for women, pointing out that ‘Police’ and ‘Public Order’ are State subjects and they are competent to deal with such crimes.