NEW DELHI: The Government of India has pushing a bill that specifically deals with the issue of sexual abuse and other offenses against minor children making ‘contact with sexual intent' a punishable crime. If violated, the offender could face a minimum three years in prison up to life term in prison. The bill now needs approval of both the Upper and Lower houses of parliament as well as the assent of the President of the country. Its ambit covers sexual harassment, sexual assault, penetrative sexual assault or aggravated penetrative sexual assault, child trafficking as well as child pornography. For the worse offenses – aggravated sexual assault, the offender, if convicted, faces a minimum 10 years behind bars. The aggravated offense is often used when the assault is done by a person in position of trust or authority including a member of the security forces, police officer, public servant, management or staff of a children's home, hospital or educational institution or even a member of the own family. It can also be treated an aggravated offense if the child victim is below 12 years or has mental or physical disability or the sexual offense causes grievous hurt or injury to the child with long term adverse effect on the child's mind and body. One a bill is a law, it effectively means that any sexual interaction, with or without consent, with any person below the age of 18 is an offense, if either party files a complaint or if it is discovered. The new bill hopes to increase the conviction rate for cases in cases of child trafficking as well as sexual abuse, who usually go scot-free on account of the poor investigations conducted by the police. Prior to this, only the State of Goa along the West Coast of India had the Goa Children's Act which specifically dealt with crimes against children.
