New Delhi, April 23: A day after President Ram Nath Kovind approved the ordinance to introduce death penalty for child rape, child and women rights activists voiced dissatisfaction with the move, saying that the new provisions fail to highlight other issues faced by survivors.
The issues were articulated by a six member bench headed by former Delhi HC Chief Justice A.P. Shah, advocate Vrinda Grover, Anuja Gupta from RAHI Foundation, Bharti Ali of HAQ: Centre for Child Rights, Anup Surendranath of Centre on Death Penalty at a press conference at Press Club here on Monday.
"The remedy offered is based on wrong diagnosis. The enhancement of the punishment including death penalty will have disastrous consequences on children. The ordinance is reactionary, impractical in terms of the procedural changes brought in and disproportionate with regards to sentencing," Shah said.
The panel highlighted that in every nine of the ten cases, the perpetrator is known to the victim and the child is often pressurised into turning hostile.
"Such pressure will increase manifold if death penalty is imposed. Mostly there are pressures of settling the matter within the family. The death penalty diverse attention from other problems in the criminal justice system such as poor investigation, crime prevention," he added.
According to the child right activists, creating children-friendly courtrooms and having trained professionals and lawyers are equally important.
"Legislation oriented to protection of victim was expected. The way trials are conducted is really very disturbing. The children are often exposed to the perpetrators. There are no special courts, how many times will a child victim would go to courts for trials," Gupta noted.
The experts also pointed that the decision was taken out of public outrage and not understanding the dynamics of child sexual abuse.
"Child abuses have been happening since generations. The concept of justice for survivors is very different. What they are looking for is not taking the abuser to court as majority are incest. Govt has to understand what is the complex relationship between the abuser and victim and why the victims don't even come up.
"What the victims look for is acknowledgment of the abusers. The ordinance will rather stop the victims to come out and report," said Gupta.
The activists also noted that there are systematic lapses which the government should have looked out before bringing in the ordinance.
"Barely any trial related to sexual violence has been concluded within three months and there are reasons for it. There is no such POCSO court and that judge has to look after many other cases so how will the trials be concluded within certain time period? Special courts dealing with child sexual abuse doesn't exist in all parts of the country. Those measures needs to be taken first," said Grover.
Ali said: "Just having a law is not good enough. It must be backed with a financial commitment. There is no budget under any scheme for services of a support person."
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Strict security measures in place in Mumbai for Messi's events at 2 venues Dec 14, say police
Mumbai (PTI): In view of Argentine superstar footballer Lionel Messi's visit to Mumbai on Sunday, the city police are implementing stringent security measures, like not allowing water bottles, metals, coins inside the stadiums and setting up watchtowers to keep an eye on the crowd, officials said.
The police also said taking extra care to avoid any stampede-like situation and to prevent recurrence of the chaotic situation that unfolded in Kolkata during Messi's visit on Saturday as thousands of fans protested inside the Salt Lake stadium here after failing to catch a clear glimpse of the football icon despite paying hefty sums for tickets.
Messi is expected to be present at the Cricket Club of India (Brabourne Stadium) in Mumbai on Sunday for a Padel GOAT Cup event followed by attending a celebrity football match. He is expected to proceed to the Wankhede Stadium for the GOAT India Tour main event around 5 pm.
"In view of Lionel Messi's visit to Mumbai, the police are geared up and have put in place a high level of security arrangements in and around the stadiums located in south Mumbai. Considering the chaos that prevailed in Kolkata and the security breach, we have deployed World Cup-level security arrangements at Brabourne and Wankhede stadiums," an official said.
Expecting heavy crowd near the stadiums during Messi's visit, the city police force has deployed more than 2,000 of its personnel near and around both the venues, he said.
As the Mumbai police have the experience of security 'bandobast' during the victory parade of ICC World Cup-winning Indian team and World Cup final match at the Wankhede Stadium, in which over one lakh cricket fans had gathered, we are prepared to handle a large crowd of fans, he said.
"We are trying to avoid the errors that occurred in the past," the official said.
There is no place to sneak inside the stadiums in Mumbai like the Kolkata stadium, according to him.
The police are also asking the organisers to provide all the required facilities to the fans inside the stadium, so that there will be no chaos, he said, adding the spectators have purchased tickets in the range of Rs 5,000 to 25,000. After paying so much of amount, any spectator expects proper services, while enjoying the event, he said.
The police are expecting 33,000 spectators at the Wankhede Stadium and over 4,000 at Brabourne Stadium. Besides this, more than 30,000 people are expected outside and around the stadiums just to have a glimpse of the football sensation, he said.
The organisers responsible for Messi's India visit recently came to Mumbai to discuss security arrangements. During the meeting, the Mumbai police asked them not to take the event lightly, according to the official.
After those requirements were fulfilled, the final security deployment was chalked out, he said.
Police has the standard procedure of the security arrangements inside the Wankhede Stadium, where people are barred from taking water bottles, metals objects, coins. Police are setting up watch towers near the stadiums and there will be traffic diversions, so that there is maximum space available to stand, according to the official.
Police are also appealing to the spectators to use public transport service for commuting and avoid personal vehicles to reach south Mumbai.
To avoid any stampede-like situation, police are also taking precautionary measures and will stop the fans some distance ahead of the stadium and public announcement systems will be used to guide the crowd. Barricades will be placed at various places to manage the crowd.
In case the crowd swells up beyond expectation, the police will divert people to other grounds and preparations in this regard underway, he said.
Additional police force has been deployed in south Mumbai to tackle any kind of situation, he said.
