The most awaited bill of giving death penalty for the sexual assault of children has been passed by Lok Sabha. The same is yet to be signed by the President to declare it as the stated law. This bill for the protection of children from all the sexual offences has been passed in form of voice votes. Another thing to note about this bill is that now child pornography has also been declared as the punishable offence. Rajya Sabha has also passed this bill of sexual assault on children last week.
Details about the bill passed for punishing sexual assault on children
There are several other rules and regulations which are attached with this bill. It strongly stand against any type of sexual harassment or assault on children. This bill was finally passed and tabled by the Union Women and Child Development Minister, Smriti Irani. Upon passing the bill, she said;
“I thank everyone for unanimously supporting this bill. I want to say that I share their angst. justice should be done and I also share their concern with regard of implementation. The ways MP rose above the party lines is exemplary.”
According to the latest provision and bill passed, it has been stated by the government that a person who commits penetrative sexual assault on children will have to serve 20 years of rigorous imprisonment. Also, the person making child pornography will be jailed for minimum 5 years. Later minimum 7 years if the same offence is repeated with added fine.
There were about 28 party members who were a part of this detailed discussing upon this bill and they also narrated their personal experience of child abuse and sexual assault on children. The common goal of every party member in the discussion was to make India such a country where every child can live freely without any fear.
Danish Ali, the senior Bahujan Samaj Party leader said;
“In a majority of the cases either the children don’t tell their parents what has happened to them or the parents ask the children to remain silent about it.”
Smriti Irani also added;
“More than 620,000 offenders are already on the database of POCSO. Her ministry is coordinating with the home, law, information broadcasting and human resource development ministries to strengthen the implementation of the bill.”
The other topics which were included in this discussion were like that of influence of social media platforms on the increase of such crimes of sexual assault on children.