Death penalty for child rape may not mean better justice, data shows

Death penalty for child rape may not mean better justice, data shows

Death penalty for child rape may not mean better justice, data shows on Business Standard. No more than 28 per cent of child rapes registered end in convictions, and there is a 20-year backlog of child-sex-abuse related court cases

Latest News About 90 per cent of child rape cases were pending trial in India in 2016, no more than 28 per cent of such cases ended in conviction, and there is a 20year backlog in bringing cases to trial, the latest available national crime data show.

These data indicate the government move to prioritise a change to legislation that allows courts to grant the death penalty will not bring quicker or better justice because there is no plan to address conviction failures and court delays.

No more than 28 per cent of child rapes registered end in convictions, and there is a 20-year backlog of child-sex-abuse related court cases, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), but the government has decided to add further legislation, permitting courts to grant the death penalty to those convicted of raping children below 12 years of age.

The new ordinance also adds a minimum punishment of 20 years to anyone who rapes a woman below 16.

Of 39,068 rape victims–including women and girls– in 2016, 43 per cent (16,863) of the girls raped were minor, below the age of 18, while, 5 per cent (2,116) were less than 12 years old, according to NCRB data.

The union cabinet on April 21, 2018, approved an ordinance to the Indian Penal Code, Indian Evidence Act, Code of Criminal Procedure and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO), allowing for harsher punishments to those committing sexual crimes against women and children. An ordinance is promulgated by the President of India when the union cabinet so recommends and used when Parliament is out of session to quickly pass legislation deemed urgent.

The amendments, known as the Criminal Law Ordinance 2018, come during a period of national uproar. April 2018 was a month where the highprofile rape cases of eight-year-old Asifa in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua district, and the alleged rape of a minor in Unnao, Uttar Pradesh, allegedly by a BJP MLA, dominated the national media and fuelled much politicised debate along religious and ethnic lines.

Reporting may be deterred, rather than rape

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