New Delhi: The Union cabinet has approved amendments in the POCSO Act which would now have death penalty for aggravated penetrative sexual assault against children.
“Stringent punishment, including death penalty for aggravated penetrative sexual abuse of children is among the amendments to the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act,” Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad announced at a press briefing.
The government has also made provision to protect children in natural calamities and disasters from being abused or administered hormones to attain early sexual maturity for purpose of assault, the minister said.
To curb child pornography, the amendment levies heavy fine for not deleting, destroying child pornographic material. Not reporting child pornography will also invite a hefty fine, the Law Minister said.
Brought in 2012, the POCSO has been modified earlier too to make it as foolproof as possible.
The amendment comes after a 40-year-old man was accused of raping his three-year-old neighbor in New Delhi on the sixth anniversary Nirbhaya gang rape that became a worldwide symbol of the dangers faced by women and girls.
It was reported that locals found the girl lying face down and unconscious near a school in Bindapur.
The suspect, a security guard who lived on the ground floor of the victim’s house, allegedly lured the child out of her home with candy to an abandoned house down the road while her parents were not home.
Over the past few years, India has received ongoing media attention for incidents of brutal rape and gender-based violence. India topped the list as the most dangerous country for women in a June survey published by Thomson Reuters Foundation.
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