Drop harsh provisions against teen sexuality

At the heart of the ongoing hearing in the Supreme Court on the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act of 2012 is the question of the age of consent for sexual relationships. A strong case has been made to reduce the age of consent from the present 18 to 16 in view of the current realities of adolescent behaviour, social change, and the consequences of the existing law. The law criminalises a sexual relationship between those under 18 in any circumstance. The Act aims to protect children from sexual abuse and prevent crimes like child trafficking. But the law is also used for parental and social control of children and to inhibit their natural growth and punish them for it. 

During the hearing, the Central government opposed the lowering of the age and granting of any exception for consensual sexual relationships between adolescents as it would dilute “the statutory presumption of vulnerability” underlying the POCSO Act. It said that an exception would increase the risks of trafficking and other forms of child abuse. The government has taken a hard patriarchal position in line with its socially conservative thinking on man-woman and family relationships. Senior lawyer Indira Jaisingh, the amicus curiae appointed by the court, has told the court that consensual sexual relationships between adolescents should not be criminalised. She has urged the court to read a close-in-age exception into the law. The Law Commission, in a recent report, said some changes were required in the law, though it did not recommend the lowering of the age of consent. 

No law should be rigid, and laws should move with the times. Adolescents now attain puberty earlier than in the past and form romantic and sexual relationships of their choice. It is wrong to curb their freedom and natural development. But such relationships lead to criminal prosecution with boys being sent to jail and girls to shelter homes. Going by the law, a  kiss between a boy and a girl can lead to a 10-year jail term for the boy. Parents of girls usually lodge complaints when the boy and the girl elope. The law needs softening--consenting physical relationships should be decriminalised. In 2022, the Dharwad bench of the Karnataka High Court sought a review of the criteria in view of “ground realities’’. The Justice J S Verma commission report, which led to changes in the POCSO Act, favoured the lowering of the age of consent. The legal age of consent is 16 or lower in many countries. The law needs to be more human and realistic.