A bill that was passed by the Madhya Pradesh Assembly and that awards the death penalty to people who are convicted of raping a minor has attracted sharp criticism from human rights groups. Amnesty International has criticised the bill as 'misplaced,' saying, “there is no evidence that the death penalty is more of a deterrent than prison terms,” while other social activists too have echoed similar sentiments.
The Madhya Pradesh Assembly unanimously passed the Penal Law (Madhya Pradesh Amendment) Bill, 2007, making rape or gang-rape of a girl below 12 years of age punishable with the death sentence. The bill, which proposes amendments in the IPC and the CrPC, also has provisions for strict punishment for other crimes against women, including disrobing a woman at a public place and stalking and luring a woman into having sexual intercourse on the pretext of marriage.
Asmita Basu, programmes director, Amnesty International India, in a statement said, “the government should, instead, focus on ensuring the certainty of justice rather than increasing the severity of punishment.” She said, “The Justice Verma Committee and India’s Law Commission have both opposed the use of the death penalty for crimes involving sexual violence. The death penalty is the ultimate violation of the right to life.”
Archana Sahay, a child rights activist and founder of NGO Aarambh in Bhopal, said “we have found so many cases where children were left by the rapists after committing the crime but now we fear for the lives of children. This is very thoughtless act as now the criminals would either kill or kidnap the victim so that no evidence is found against them. We need to change the mindset of people; death penalty is not a solution, instead it will increase the chance of murder of the victim.”
Social activist and state in-charge of Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) Roli Shivhare too criticised the decision of awarding death penalty, saying, “When several countries are ending death penalty, it is strange that we are thinking it as a solution. The criminality and rapists should be viewed in a different manner. Life term is a better option in a country like ours where law is often abused to settle scores.”
Sachin Jain, a former Supreme Court commissioner in the cases of malnutrition of children and right to food activist, said, “Death penalty cannot be the solution to any crime especially in a country like ours where law has been used highly arbitrarily and the poor people have little access to judicial remedies.”
The bill was hurriedly introduced on the last day of the Assembly session after the latest report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) declared Madhya Pradesh as number one in number of rapes and crime against women. Madhya Pradesh reported the maximum number of rape cases of minors last year. In all, a whopping 2,479 cases were reported, out of which 192 cases involved girls below 12 years of age. The police response in such cases is dismal in the state as it recorded a low conviction rate of 30 per cent.
The bill has the provision of death penalty or rigorous imprisonment for not less than 14 years or life imprisonment in case of rape or gang-rape of a girl up to 12 years of age. Similarly, stalking of women has been made punishable with up to three years in jail for first-time offenders and three to seven years for repeat offenders. Luring a woman into having sexual intercourse has been made punishable with imprisonment of up to three years. Use of force against or assault on a woman with an intention to disrobe will attract three to seven years in jail.
The bill has been sent to the state Governor who in turn will send to the President of India for his concurrence. When a girl was gang-raped in Bhopal last month, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had declared that his government would award death sentence to rapists. Speaking in the Assembly Chouhan declared that rapists have no right to walk on this earth. “Persons who rape little girls deserve death,” he said.
Leader of opposition Ajay Singh said, “We have supported the bill in the house but government cannot run away from its responsibility of maintaining law and order in the state and giving a safe environment to women.” He expressed fear of the law being misused to settle scores in the state that was famous for its poor record in implementation of rules and regulations.
The chief minister admitted that the new provisions can be misused by crafty people but said “that should not deter us from making tough laws.” He said “In the next session of the Assembly, we would introduce a new bill to control misuse of this and other similar laws.”
