What India’s New ‘Anti-Rape’ Bill Actually Says
NEW DELHI–After
clearing the Lok Sabha or lower house of Parliament earlier this week, a
bill to toughen India’s laws on sexual offenses is being debated in the upper house on Thursday.
The bill, which will amend India’s penal code and laws of criminal
procedure and evidence, was drafted in response to widespread street
protests after the fatal gang rape of a 23-year-old woman in Delhi in
December.
Among the significant provisions of the bill, seen by India Ink, are
longer sentences for sex offenders, a broader definition of rape and
punishments for other sex crimes like stalking and voyeurism.
Here are some of the bill’s crucial changes:
– Women’s rights advocates and victims of sexual
offenses have long accused a male-dominated police force of refusing to
register complaints by women, and even facilitating a monetary
settlement or brokering a marriage between victims of rape and the
accused.
The bill lays down punishment for police officers who fail to record
the initial complaint, known as the first information report, of a woman
who alleges she was attacked with acid, assaulted by a man who intended
to molest her or “outrage her modesty,” stripped naked or raped. Such
officers can receive jail terms of six months to two years.
– The bill creates a separate offense to address
acid attacks, common in South Asian countries, especially by men who are
spurned by women they express an interest in.
Under the bill, those convicted of throwing acid on a woman, causing
“permanent or partial damage or deformity,” or maiming or disfiguring
her, will be punished with prison sentences ranging from 10 years to
life and a fine.
With an eye to the rehabilitation of the victim, the bill says the fine should be paid to the woman as compensation.
– The bill defines sexual harassment, which includes
“physical contact and advances involving unwelcome and explicit sexual
overtures,” a demand for sexual favors and showing pornography to a
woman who does not want to see it. Those convicted of harassment can
receive prison sentences of up to three years.
Making “sexually colored” remarks is also included in the definition
of sexual harassment, for which the bill prescribes a prison sentence of
up to a year.
– The bill criminalizes the forced stripping of
women, or disrobing, in public spaces or in private confines, with a
minimum jail term of three years and a maximum of seven. Under the
current law, disrobing a woman is not a separate offense.
– One of the more controversial provisions in the
bill is the section on voyeurism, which seeks to punish men who watch or
photograph women who are conducting a “private act,” such as bathing,
using the toilet or having sex.
The bill lays down a punishment of three to seven years in prison for those convicted of voyeurism more than once.
Voyeurism is not a separate offense under the current law.
– The bill creates another new, and much-debated,
offense: stalking. This provision deals with men who follow a woman and
establish contact with her or attempt to do so “to foster personal
interaction repeatedly despite a clear indication of disinterest” by the
woman.
E-stalking, or monitoring of a woman’s activities online, such as browsing or checking of e-mail, has also been made punishable.
A man convicted of stalking once can be sentenced to a term of up to
three years, and if convicted again can receive a sentence of up to five
years.
– The bill expands the definition of rape to include
not just penovaginal intercourse but the insertion of an object or any
other body part into a woman’s vagina, urethra or anus, and oral sex.
This responds to a longstanding demand of women’s rights groups. The
issue of rape by different means was highlighted in the Delhi gang-rape
case, where an iron rod was inserted into the young woman’s body.
Prison sentences for rape can range from seven years to life. The
current law allows courts to hand down a sentence of less than seven
years for “adequate and special reasons,” a provision omitted in the
bill.
– The bill raises the age of consent for sex to 18.
This means that intercourse with a woman under 18 is statutory rape and
courts conducting rape trials cannot consider whether the woman
consented to having sex. It also, in effect, criminalizes consensual sex
with women under 18,
a subject of much controversy.
– The bill does not make marital rape an offense, ignoring a longstanding demand of women’s rights advocates.
– The bill takes a tough stand on rape by public
servants. Under the current law, when a rape is committed by a police
officer or prison staff, those convicted can be punished with sentences
ranging from 10 years to life.
The bill clarifies that imprisonment for life means the convict must remain in prison till the end of his natural life.
The bill also allows women to bring a complaint of rape against members of the armed forces.
– When a rape leaves a woman dead or in a
“persistent vegetative state,” the bill demands a minimum sentence of 20
years in prison and a maximum punishment of death. This is the first
time that the death penalty is being prescribed for sexual offenses in
India, which, unlike nearly all European nations, retains the death
sentence, but uses it only in the “rarest of rare cases.”
– The bill increases the minimum punishment for gang
rape from 10 years imprisonment to 20 years, and the maximum punishment
to life imprisonment.
– The bill provides for life imprisonment or death for repeat offenders convicted of rape and gang rape.
– The bill makes procedural changes to address
concerns that women are uncomfortable or intimidated by male police
officers, or are treated with insensitivity when they approach police
stations to register complaints of sex crimes.
The bill requires that all initial reports involving sexual
harassment, disrobing, voyeurism, stalking, rape and gang rape be taken
by women officers only.
– In order to ensure speedy trial, the bill requires
that rape trials be completed “as far as possible” within two months
from the time the police file charges against the accused.
http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/21/what-indias-anti-rape-bill-actually-says/
