The Prime Minister’s Office has asked the Ministry of Women and Child Develpoment to consider a proposal from a group of women lawyers suggesting that chemical castration be carried out as an additional punishment for child rapists. The representation was made on April 18 by the Supreme Court Women Lawyers’ Association, a private association of women lawyers in the top court. The PMO has forwarded the representation to the ministry for taking appropriate action.
The president of the association, Mahalakshmi Pavani, has opined that this will go a long way in inducing fear in the minds of rapists. The rationale being that, ‘by removing the libido, you are targeting the ego of a man.’ Chemical castration is different from physical castration which involves surgical removal of the genitals. The latter merely involves injecting of a substance that diminishes and dilutes sexual desire.
Apart from castration, the association in its representation has also proposed an amendment to the definition of the term “child” under the POCSO Act. It has been suggested that the term child should include both girls and boys falling in the age group of 0 months-12 years. In the recent past, there have been several instances where small boys have been sexually exploited and raped. The government is already considering an application to treat male child victims at par with girls.
This comes in the backdrop of enhanced punishment for child rapists by an ordinance amending the POCSO whereby death penalty is provided for rapes in case the victim is below 12 years of age. After the Kathua tragedy had rocked the nation, the Central Government amended the Act in order to create a deterrent effect. The PMO by forwarding this proposal to the Women and Child Development Ministry signifies a serious resolve on the part of the government to put up a stern fight against rapists and impose harsh repercussions for the same.
This is not for the first time that demands for castration of child rapists has come up. In fact, society has been on a consensus that the death penalty is not sufficient to deal with such monstrous elements. Where the crime is of such a heinous and brutal character, the punishment must also be of a higher magnitude. When the crime is so brutal that there is no word strong enough to describe its perpetrators, it does not make sense that they should be punished with traditional laws that have not been making much of an impact anyway. However, the Justice Verma committee formed in 2013 in the aftermath of the Nirbhaya gang rape case had rejected this demand. The committee had added that such a punishment would be inhumane and unconstitutional. One fails to understand why someone who is inhumane enough to brutalise a small kid shouldn’t be dealt with in a similar manner. We need to answer them in the language that they understand.
In fact, the Supreme Court has asked the Centre in the past to consider castration as a punishment for child rapists. The Supreme Court had then instructed the Attorney General to check with the Centre on its stand regarding the issue. Justice N Kirubakaran of the Madras high court had observed that even though such a suggestion may initially sound “barbaric, retrograde, stone-aged and inhuman”, such traditional laws have not been able to cope with such crimes adequately. The court had also observed that additional punishment of castration of child rapists would fetch marginal results in preventing and containing child abuses.
Even though the government is moving ahead with stern punishments against child rapists, one can be sure of the fact that apparent ‘Human Rights groups’ along with their left-liberal comradse are bound to create ruckus about chemical castration and defend the rapists for political gains. However, there is nothing unusual or inhumane about such a punishment. The United States, South Korea, the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, Poland and Russia already have provisions for chemical castration to punish offenders. While tackling rape will involve much more than provisions like these, the development is nonetheless a step in the right direction.