Haryana approves death penalty for rapists of girls below 12
The Haryana Assembly passed a bill yesterday approving death penalty for rapists of girls aged 12 or below. It has now become the third state after Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan to have capital punishment for such crimes. The Criminal Law (Haryana Amendment) Bill, 2018, was passed unanimously, with even the opposition Congress and INLD voting in support. Here's more about the new laws.
The new additions to the Indian Penal Code
With this bill, under Section-376AA, rapists of girls below 12 are punishable by death or 14 years' imprisonment, extendable to life. Under Section-376DA, each gang-rapist is punishable by death or minimum imprisonment of 20 years, extendable to life. Punishment for outraging modesty (Section-354) has been increased from 1-5 years to 2-7 years. Under Section-354D(2), stalkers can be imprisoned for up to seven years.
Fines received from rapists to be given to victims
Under the new laws, fines will also be levied on those convicted of rape of a girl below 12 years. Any such money received by the authorities will be given to the victim.
Alarmingly high number of sexual crimes against women in Haryana
Last month, there were nine reports of rapes in one week. Two Dalit girls were allegedly raped and killed in Safidon and Panipat, another was gang-raped at knife-point in Mankawas, and two women were gang-raped in moving cars in Farrukhnagar and Faridabad. In Fatehabad, a married 20-year-old was gang-raped. A 14-year-old in Hisar and a 50-year-old in Pinjore were arrested for raping minors.
Prevalence of death penalty in India
In India, the death penalty is prescribed for convicted terrorists under some anti-terror laws, murder, robbery with murder, abetting suicide of a child or unstable person, and abetting mutiny by an armed forces member. The SC has advocated the death penalty in cases involving child victims, political assassinations, dowry deaths and more. However, courts award death only in the "rarest of rare" cases.
Will death penalty help control sexual crimes?
Under-reporting of sexual crimes seems to be a prevalent issue in Haryana due to social taboos: according to NCRB data, Kerala, with 34mn people, recorded 2.6L IPC offences in 2016, while Haryana, with 25mn people, had just 88,000 crimes. Conviction and chargesheeting rates for crimes against women were at dismal lows of 13.4% and 56.1% Change in mindsets is essential to improve the situation.
