Govt to consider allowing consenual sex among children

The government is examining the possibility of exempting consensual sex between them from the purview of a criminal offence, reports Chetan Chauhan.

Updated on: Apr 26, 2007, 22:32:14 IST

None | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Prompted by a finding in a government study that a certain number of young children have sex or engage in sexual activity for experimenting, the government is examining the possibility of exempting consensual sex between them from the purview of a criminal offence.

The Offences Against Child Bill drafted by the Women and Child Development ministry enumerates sex with a child, defined as anyone below the age of 18, as a criminal offence. Now, there is a re-thinking on this section with the Study on Child Abuse in India coming out with a fact that sex or sexual act between young children may not always be an abuse. Sexual Act means fondling, oral sex, touching private parts, exhibition of private parts or kissing.

The study says sexual abuse is highest among the children in the age group of 15-18. As many as 38.5 per cent children said fondling or touching body parts was done by friends or classmates, followed by 24 per cent by uncles and relatives. “Many children were also of the opinion that they may not have been in an abusive situation giving credence that it may have been consensual sexual activity,” the report stated.

A senior WCD official told HT that the ministry wants to revisit the Bill in light of the astonishing findings of the study. The ministry would be consulting legal experts and seeking public opinion through its website on whether consensual sex between young children should be exempted in the Bill or not.

The biggest debate, the ministry admits, would be on how to define consensual sex among young children. “The loophole that a child may be forced to say it was a consensual sex will have to be plugged,” the official said. “To distinguish between abuse and consensual act would be very difficult. A bigger child could always abuse a young child and it can be termed as exploring sexuality,” Raj Mangal Singh, of NGO Pratidhi, pointed out. The ministry’s say a process of lengthy consultation is being drawn before a final decision is taken.

What has apparently prompted the ministry to consider the option is a finding where 26.8 per cent young adults recalled having sexual experience during childhood and majority stating it was with friends and classmates and they were not in an abusive situation. “A child cannot be prosecuted if there is neither a victim nor a perpetrator,” the official said.

On one issue that ministry has taken a clear stand - the exemption will not apply if the perpetrator is an adult.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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