The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved a proposal to replace the word “rape” with the phrase “sexual assault”, making it a gender-neutral offence and identified acid attacks as a separate offence punishable with a maximum of 10 years.
Union Minister for Women & Child Development (WCD) Krishna Tirath confirmed that the Cabinet had given the go-ahead to the draft proposal. “Besides the two proposals that have been accepted, it has also been decided by the Cabinet that minors will be defined uniformly as a person below 18 years in both Cr.PC or IPC, which is now the legal age for minors,” said Ms. Tirath.
“We welcome the amendment which we hope will go a long way in ensuring protection and justice for women and children in the country. We are especially pleased with acid attack now being identified as a separate offence which we are sure will serve as a deterrent against the rising number of these attacks across the country,’’ she added.
All-India Democratic Women’s Association general secretary Sudha Sundararaman said: “Though we welcome the move to bring in more stringent laws for rape, we demand that it remain gender-specific to protect women. However, in the case of children we are all for gender-neutral laws on sexual assault. We would give a more elaborate response to this latest development only after we get the copy of the proposal that has been cleared by the Cabinet on Thursday.’’
Former member of the Law Commission of India and Supreme Court lawyer Kirti Singh said: “We welcome the approval by the Cabinet for replacing the word ‘rape’ with ‘sexual assault,’ but we are specific about our demand of the laws being gender-specific when it comes to adults. At present the offence is defined under Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code as per which a man is said to commit ‘rape’ in case he has sexual intercourse with a woman against her will. We had demanded that ‘rape’ also include forced oral and anal penetration; we are keen to see what the Government has approved.’’
“Another important part of our proposal was that stalking, stripping be also defined as crime. We are yet to get any details and are looking forward to what exactly has been approved by in the proposal by the Cabinet on Thursday.’’
Senior advocate Pinki Anand said: “We welcome the government’s move to bring in more stringent laws to protect women. The laws that we have been following are very old and a radical change has been long overdue. The current society has seen newer forms and higher degree of abuse against women and the laws have to accommodate and change according to the dynamics of the offence.”
