Even as the government succumbed to the political parties’ pressure to keep the age of consent for consensual sex at 18 years in the new anti-rape bill cleared by Parliament, fresh data collected by the ministry of home affairs shows that maximum number of youth are being booked under rape charges in the 16 to 18 years age bracket. In fact, the offence of rape falls only second to burglary reported against children (under 18 years of age) bringing them directly in conflict with the law.
While burglary by children under 18 years is highest at 4.88 per cent, rape follows closely with 4.26 per cent being registered against juveniles of all the rape offences in the country under the Indian Penal Code. The number of juveniles rape offenders in 16-18 years age bracket are higher than those accused of murder, kidnapping and abduction, dacoity, robbery, cheating, molestation, sexual harassment and death by negligence committed by all juveniles in the country. The Union home ministry was keen to de-criminalise sex by lowering the age of consent to 16 years to ensure the new law is not in conflict with the changing trends.
The data on the trends of juvenile crimes in the country over three years, also reveals that the number of rape offenders in the age group of 16-18 years has increased manifold in the last two years.
“The issue is whether we need to deal with children between 16-18 years who are increasingly indulging in sexual activities in this age group through social intervention or legal intervention. Criminalising sex in this age bracket has the danger of bringing these juveniles directly in conflict with the law,” a senior government official said.
The MHA officials are apprehensive that the total crime rate for rape cases among juveniles is expected to increase with consensual sex now being legalised only at 18 years.
In 2011, a total of 1231 rape cases were registered against juveniles with included 839 cases against those in the 16-18 years age group. This was followed by 781 cases of murder, 608 cases of attempt to murder, 485 cases of kidnapping and abduction of women and girls, 111 cases of kidnapping and abduction of others, 142 dacoity cases, 576 for robbery, 154 for cheating and so on.