India Introduces Death Penalty for Child Rapists

 

Following outrage over a recent spate of high profile child rape cases in India’s Cabinet has approved the introduction of the death penalty for child rapists.

The change to India’s penal code applies to those convicted of raping a child under the age of 12.

This sudden focus on the rape of minors has come to into stark focus after recent nationwide protests following the gang rape and murder of an eight-year-old Muslim girl by Hindu men in Kathua, in Indian-administered Kashmir in January. There has been growing concern that the government has not done enough to prevent sexual-assault cases in general but especial these involving children.

Other serious crimes in India do carry the death penalty. Raping a child was not among them until now.

Staggeringly there were nearly 19,000 cases of child rape registered in India in 2016 – more than 50 each day. Many will hope that this new change in the law will act as a serious deterrent to the perpetrators of these terrible crimes. Only time will tell this will reduce the number of cases.

After a special cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the new executive law was passed. The changes also include increases in the minimum prison sentences for rape against girls under the age of 16. It is unclear if this applies to the rape of male minors or only female minors.

A second recent rape case also shocked the nation when a member of the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was accused of raping a 16-year-old girl in northern Uttar Pradesh state.

 

India has had a less than satisfactory record of dealing with sexual violence which has been a major focus of media and public attention since the 2012 gang rape and murder of a student on a Delhi bus. Mass protests following that case led to changes to the country’s rape laws.

However the blight of rape cases and sexual attacks against women and children have gone on unabated across the country. The governments latest strong stance may make a difference but the social issues that underly this blight on India are unlikely to be affected by the change in law how ever well intentioned.

Does India still have the death penalty?

The death penalty is still an option for the law in extreme cases in India. However, an indication of the rarity of its use is there have only been three recorded cases in the last decade.

The four men convicted in the Delhi bus case were sentenced to death, though at time of writing these men are still being held in prison. The judge in that case was quoted to say that the death penalty was only for “the rarest of rare category”.

The last person to be executed in India – by hanging – was a man convicted of financing the deadly 1993 Mumbai bombings. That execution took place in 2015.