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Should the age of consent be changed for adolescents?

Context: The 22nd Law Commission, which is looking into the issue of age of consent, held a meeting with officials of the Women and Child Development Ministry recently and sought details on the subject.

What are the terms of the POCSO Act?

• Under the POCSO Act, 2012, whoever commits a penetrative sexual assault on a child — anyone below 18 years of age — can be “imprisoned for a term which is not less than seven years but which may extend to imprisonment for life
• Even if the girl is 16 years old, she is considered a “child” under the POCSO Act and hence her consent does not matter, and any sexual intercourse is treated as rape.

Is the law being misused?

• In 2019, a study, Why Girls Run Away to Marry made a case for the age of consent to be lower than the age of marriage to decriminalize sex among older adolescents to protect them from the misuse of law, sometimes by parents who want to control who their daughters or sons want to marry.
• The study noted that in many cases, a couple elopes fearing opposition from parents resulting in a situation where families file a case with the police, who then book the boy for rape under the POCSO Act and abduction with the intent to marry under IPC or the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006.
• In 2021, in the Vijaylakshmi vs State Rep case, the Madras High Court, while dismissing a POCSO case, said the definition of ‘child’ under Section 2(d) of the POCSO Act can be redefined as 16 instead of 18.
• The court suggested that the age difference in consensual relationships should not be more than five years.

Way Ahead

With the courts and rights activists seeking amendment to the age of consent criteria, the ball lies in the government’s court to look into the issue. In the meantime, adolescents have to be made aware of the stringent provisions of the Act and also the IPC.