The Chhattisgarh Assembly passed the Penal Code (Chhattisgarh Amendment) Bill 2013, seeking more stringent punishment for sexual crimes, including circulation of obscene MMS and SMS.
While elaborating the provisions of the bill, home minister Nankiram Kanwar said, “Women now go out to work and to educational institutions. Therefore, it is necessary to ensure a safe environment, so that they don’t face stalking, sexual or physical assault and other kinds of attacks.”
Through the amendment, the minimum punishment under these sections has been increased to ensure that those indulging in crime against women are punished severely.
The perspective of crime against women has been expanded through the amendment wherein eve-teasing, vulgar SMS, MMS and e-mails all have been included with increase in punishments.
Provisions have been made to increase the existing punishments from six months to two years. Sexual harassment of women by their relatives could attract imprisonment of anywhere between two and seven years.
There are stringent provisions to punish people who are in-charge of any place where a crime has been committed, and could have stopped it or reported it to the authorities, but didn’t do so.
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