What India’s New ‘Anti-Rape’ Bill Actually Says

Sajjad Hussain/Agence France-Presse â€" Getty Images A protest organized in New Delhi in the wake of the Dec.16, 2012 gang rape of a 23-year-old woman.

NEW DELHI-After clearing the Lok Sabha or lower house of Parliament earlier this week, a bill to toughen India’s laws on sexual offenses is being debated in the upper house on Thursday.

The bill, which will amend India’s penal code and laws of criminal procedure and evidence, was drafted in response to widespread street protests after the fatal gang rape of a 23-year-old woman in Delhi in December.

Among the significant provisions of the bill, seen by India Ink, are longer sentences for sex offenders, a broader definition of rape and punishments for other sex crimes like stalking and voyeurism.

Here are some of the bill’s crucial changes:

- Women’s rights advocates and victims of sexual offenses have long accused a male-dominated police force of refusing to register complaints by women, and even facilitating a monetary settlement or brokering a marriage between victims of rape and the accused.

The bill lays down punishment for police officers who fail to record the initial complaint, known as the first information report, of a woman who alleges she was attacked with acid, assaulted by a man who intended to molest her or “outrage her modesty,” stripped naked or raped. Such officers can receive jail terms of six months to two years.

- The bill creates a separate offense to address acid attacks, common in South Asian countries, especially by men who are spurned by women they express an interest in.

Under the bill, those convicted of throwing acid on a woman, causing “permanent or partial damage or deformity,” or maiming or disfiguring her, will be punished with prison sentences ranging from 10 years to life and a fine.

With an eye to the rehabilitation of the victim, the bill says the fine should be paid to the woman as compensation.

- The bill defines sexual harassment, which includes “physical contact and advances involving unwelcome and explicit sexual overtures,” a demand for sexual favors and showing pornography to a woman who does not want to see it. Those convicted of harassment can receive prison sentences of up to three years.

Making “sexually colored” remarks is also included in the definition of sexual harassment, for which the bill prescribes a prison sentence of up to a year.

- The bill criminalizes the forced stripping of women, or disrobing, in public spaces or in private confines, with a minimum jail term of three years and a maximum of seven. Under the current law, disrobing a woman is not a separate offense.

- One of the more controversial provisions in the bill is the section on voyeurism, which seeks to punish men who watch or photograph women who are conducting a “private act,” such as bathing, using the toilet or having sex.

The bill lays down a punishment of three to seven years in prison for those convicted of voyeurism more than once.

Voyeurism is not a separate offense under the current law.

- The bill creates another new, and much-debated, offense: stalking. This provision deals with men who follow a woman and establish contact with her or attempt to do so “to foster personal interaction repeatedly despite a clear indication of disinterest” by the woman.

E-stalking, or monitoring of a woman’s activities online, such as browsing or checking of e-mail, has also been made punishable.

A man convicted of stalking once can be sentenced to a term of up to three years, and if convicted again can receive a sentence of up to five years.

- The bill expands the definition of rape to include not just penovaginal intercourse but the insertion of an object or any other body part into a woman’s vagina, urethra or anus, and oral sex.

This responds to a longstanding demand of women’s rights groups. The issue of rape by different means was highlighted in the Delhi gang-rape case, where an iron rod was inserted into the young woman’s body.

Prison sentences for rape can range from seven years to life. The current law allows courts to hand down a sentence of less than seven years for “adequate and special reasons,” a provision omitted in the bill.

- The bill raises the age of consent for sex to 18. This means that intercourse with a woman under 18 is statutory rape and courts conducting rape trials cannot consider whether the woman consented to having sex. It also, in effect, criminalizes consensual sex with women under 18, a subject of much controversy.

- The bill does not make marital rape an offense, ignoring a longstanding demand of women’s rights advocates.

- The bill takes a tough stand on rape by public servants. Under the current law, when a rape is committed by a police officer or prison staff, those convicted can be punished with sentences ranging from 10 years to life.

The bill clarifies that imprisonment for life means the convict must remain in prison till the end of his natural life.

The bill also allows women to bring a complaint of rape against members of the armed forces.

- When a rape leaves a woman dead or in a “persistent vegetative state,” the bill demands a minimum sentence of 20 years in prison and a maximum punishment of death. This is the first time that the death penalty is being prescribed for sexual offenses in India, which, unlike nearly all European nations, retains the death sentence, but uses it only in the “rarest of rare cases.”

- The bill increases the minimum punishment for gang rape from 10 years imprisonment to 20 years, and the maximum punishment to life imprisonment.

- The bill provides for life imprisonment or death for repeat offenders convicted of rape and gang rape.

- The bill makes procedural changes to address concerns that women are uncomfortable or intimidated by male police officers, or are treated with insensitivity when they approach police stations to register complaints of sex crimes.

The bill requires that all initial reports involving sexual harassment, disrobing, voyeurism, stalking, rape and gang rape be taken by women officers only.

- In order to ensure speedy trial, the bill requires that rape trials be completed “as far as possible” within two months from the time the police file charges against the accused.