Blood curdling, horrific, sadistic, terrifying, shocking, cruel and brutal gang rapes of toddlers in New Delhi, in October 2015, would definitely justify this Court to suggest castration as an additional punishment for child abusers, especially child rapists,” Justice N Kirubakaran of the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court pronounced recently in a case where a UK national was accused of sexually abusing a boy, creating national headlines. The subsequent news reports might have omitted a few of the honourable judge’s adjectives quoted above but the sentiment was conveyed accurately enough: existing laws were not enough, India must debate and discuss castrating those who sexually abuse children so that it would act as a deterrent to others. Anticipating the protests that his statement would evoke, particularly on the grounds that it would be a violation of human rights, Kirubakaran goes on to say that though castration might sound barbaric, “barbaric crimes should definitely attract a barbaric model of punishment.” Sensational as the statement is, consider the circumstances in which it was made, which the judge himself mentions in his order. On October 11, Delhi Police said a four-year-old girl had allegedly been raped: found crying near a railway line, she was bleeding and was hospitalised. Less than a week later, a two-year-old girl was reported to have been raped by two men in west Delhi. The same day, in Anand Vihar in east Delhi, a fiveyear-old girl was gang-raped by three men. These three horrific cases might have caught public attention because they were in New Delhi and happened in the space of a few days but the rest of the numbers reveal an equally shocking story: last year, 13,766 cases of child rape were reported, according to National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) statistics. That’s roughly 38 rapes every day. In 2013, 12,363 cases were reported. In this atmosphere, by no means is Kirubakaran alone in his views. “I congratulate the judge for publicly voicing what many people feel, as they have voiced frequently to me during my interactive parent-teacher chats in schools,” says Pinki Virani, activist and author of Bitter Chocolate: Child Sexual Abuse in India, and a victim of abuse herself. Published in 2000, Virani’s book is considered a landmark of sorts for documenting and recounting the multiple horrors of child sexual abuse in the country, including middle- and upper-class homes, and attempting to break the silence around it. Emidio Pinho, a lawyer and child protection coordinator at Goa-based NGO SCAN (Stop Child Abuse Now), is also among those who agree with the judge. “At the rate at which cases of sexual abuse are taking place, a drastic step such as castration should be taken, especially when the victim is below 12 years. The method of castration should be left to the medical experts,” says Pinho. Others who might not subscribe to his solution nevertheless welcome the call to debate the issue. “… as reporting indicates a rising trend, the court’s suggestion for a full public debate in the matter is welcome and much needed as it will help in bringing the whole issue into the public domain and lead to better enforcement under POCSO (Protection of Children Against Sexual Offences) Act,” says Stuti Kacker, chairperson of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, though she adds that India’s penal policy has been reformative and not retributive and that the suggestion to mandatorily chemically castrate sex offenders has been rejected once before. Indeed, even the very human rights activists the judge fears would put paid to his suggestion of castration understand the frustration underlying the suggestion. “I was shocked when I read the news reports but when I read the judgement I realised that the judge was very anguished about the situation of children in the country and the justice system,” says Enakshi Ganguly, codirector of HAQ Centre for Child Rights. Nobel laureate and child rights activist Kailash Satyarthi points to a recent study by Bachpan Bachao Andolan which found that in cases of sexual abuse of children, the conviction rate was 1%, with 4% acquittals and the remaining 95% being unresolved. “There is a growing sense of frustration in all walks of society on our collective failure to protect our children from the rising spate of sexual abuse,” says Satyarthi, who has also founded the Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation. Not the Refuge of the Regressive As regressive as the term “castration” sounds, with its connotations of mutilation and torture, there are countries where it has been made the penalty for sexual offenders, especially those who sexually abuse and assault children. And these are not authoritarian regimes, but developed nations such as the US, the UK, South Korea, Germany, Denmark and Sweden, as well as Poland and Russia. Indonesia too is contemplating a similar law for mandatory chemical castration in the wake of a spate of sexual crimes against children, just as in India. The Catholic Church and human rights groups in Indonesia have condemned the proposed punishment but its supporters include President Joko Widodo. The implementation and guidelines vary from country to country. In Germany, surgical castration is offered as treatment to detained sex offenders and the procedure is strictly voluntary, with a waiting period given to reconsider the decision. In the UK, too, castration for sex offenders is voluntary but, unlike in Germany, it is a chemical procedure. Here, those convicted are either given antidepressants like Prozac to help control sexual thoughts or anti-androgen drugs, which reduce testosterone levels. Last year, Aaron Collis, a 28-year-old imprisoned for sexually abusing 22 children, including an 18-month-old, demanded that he be chemically castrated to lower risk to others once he was released, according to a report in the Daily Mail. “I am only speaking for myself because I know my own mind, I know my triggers and I know that the SOTP [Sex Offenders’ Treatment Programme] alone is simply not going to lower my risk,” the convicted paedophile wrote in a letter in a prison magazine. Around 100 convicts participated in the voluntary programme for sex offenders in the UK. In the US, certain states have made chemical castration mandatory for those convicted of child sexual abuse. India, too, considered the option of castration as a punishment for sexual offenders, in an even more charged atmosphere. In December 2012, after the horrifying gangrape and attack of a 23-year-old in Delhi, there were vociferous calls from the public to castrate rapists, and the Justice Verma Committee set up to review the laws did indeed address this. But the final report categorically rejected both mandatory chemical and surgical castration, on the grounds that it was a violation of human rights and failed to address underlying causes of sexual assault, such as power. The report also said more research and consultation was needed to recommend voluntary chemical castration in India. “Untenable from All Points” Even in the countries where chemical castration for sex offenders has been implemented, questions have been raised about its efficacy and the ethical concerns about the approach. Those prescribing it agree that the data is not yet conclusive, according to news reports. In India, the situation is more complex, even if one were to set aside the human rights concerns. As tempting as it might be to castrate those sexually abusing the most vulnerable members of our society, it is an untenable solution from all points of view, explains Virani. In physical castration, which part of the body would be castrated, the penis, the finger, or the tongue, she asks, since sexual abuse goes far beyond peno-vaginal penetration. “And what if it’s a woman, since 10% of child sexual cases are perpetrated by women, on young boys and little girls?” Chemical castration, meanwhile, requires constant treatment through injectables which would need to be given even when the convict is outside. “If he or she is still a convict, why is he not in jail(thereby there being no need for chemical castration)? If he or she is out of prison because a jail sentence is completed, how can any injectable be enforced upon a technically “free man who has finished serving time,” she argues. Then there is the disturbing reality mostly brushed under the carpet that the majority of sexual abuse of children happens inside homes or by people known to the victim. “Incest is the largest form of abuse. Are you going to go into homes and castrate family members,” asks HAQ’s Ganguly. The increase in reporting of cases, which is behind the recent outrage and calls for castration, should be seen as a good thing. “Let us not keep saying there’s an increase because, if we do, the police might stop reporting,” she says. Prosecution: the Only Magic Bullet The real malaise, as Ganguly says, is a systemic failure to deliver justice, which the judge himself illustrated by pointing out that there are not enough convictions, the pendency of cases and the increasing number of cases. “If there is a systemic failure, the only thing that works is a guarantee of justice and of prosecution, not another penal provision,” she says. Srishti Agnihotri, Smriti Shukla and Minakshi Das, who provide legal assistance for victims of child abuse, say that the current laws were adequate and should be given a chance to work. When it came into force in 2012, the Protection of Children Against Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) was hailed as a landmark legislation and the first of its kind exclusively to address the abuse of children. But since it came into effect on Children’s Day that year, there have only been 166 convictions up to December 2014. “It (POCSO) has been poorly implemented in India on account of various factors such as an overburdened and untrained police force and a similarly overburdened judiciary,” says Das. “Are we at all conducting any study on paedophilia in India? Every one of the accused cannot be suffering from mental health issues,” she added. NGO SPAN’s advocate Pinho agrees. “In Goa, we have only one children’s court which is overburdened with more than 350 cases of child abuse. There should be a court in every district, and the government should be held accountable as far as implementation is concerned,” he says. “Any law — no matter how brilliant, and POCSO 2012 is among the best in India’s criminal laws — is not a live law if it is not being applied. POCSO comes with the clear mandate for child protection courts (as also Child Protection Units) and a case-close in one year. Till such time as this is not achieved, POCSO will not fulfil its true potential of protecting the children of India from child sexual abuse,” says Virani, who has approached the Supreme Court with a public interest litigation that five specific child-rapists given the death penalty but pardoned by then president Pratibha Patil be hanged, to “put the fright into some future rapists”. Meanwhile, she and other activists urge parents and schools to teach children the difference between “good touch” and “bad touch”, ensuring the child remembers this and feels safe about reporting abuse and that society and the state respond positively to those reporting the crime. “It’s only the guarantee of prosecution that can be the magic mantra,” says HAQ’s Ganguly. “We have the best laws in the world, but we also have judges asking rape victims to marry the perpetrator.” ? ET Magazine View: Implement The Law In Letter And Spirit When it comes to child sexual abuse, the ugly truth is that in half of the cases, the abuser is someone the victim knows, and in a position of trust. This is borne out by both government data and anecdotal evidence. As a columnist in The Hindu wrote, conviction rate under POCSO is abysmal, partly because of the difficulty of a child giving evidence against a family member. How will the added punishment of chemical castration address this complexity? Before deciding that chemical castration would be the “magic solution”, we might also do well to conduct studies on paedophilia convicts in India to ascertain why they abuse, as researcher Minakshi Das pointed out. Passing another law introducing another penal measure is the easy, please-all solution that ignores nuances. POCSO 2012 is considered an excellent law: implementing it in letter and spirit, by having child-friendly special courts. Sections in police stations and most importantly, closing the trial in a year should be what the government should focus on. We owe at least this to our children.