PCSOA 2011 - Raising age of consent for sex to 18

        Protection of Children from Sexual Abuses act 2011. The parliament of India passed this bill recently and raised the age for consent for sex from 16yrs to 18yrs. Recently a trial court has termed this law which raises the age for consent for sex from16 to 18yrs as ‘undemocratic’ and regressive’. It also stated that this act can be used as a tool by law enforcing authorities to harass minors especially boys.

       The court clarified that it was against teenage sex but raising the age is not the solution. "Good virtues cannot be inculcated and good conscience cannot be imbibed in a child by legal provisions. It would be better and wiser to leave this job to parents and school teachers...Children need to be imparted sex education in the schools," said the court. These observations made by the court in the case of Sandeep Paswan ,facing trial for kidnapping and raping a minor girl who had eloped with him.

    As already the bill has been passed in the parliament, the Govt. should think on these lines and reconsider the raising of age for consent for sex.

You can get the full text of PCSOA 2011 here

http://164.100.24.219/BillsTexts/RSBillTexts/asintroduced/protection%20children.pdf