The upper house of India’s parliament has approved legislation meant to pass laws increasing the penalties for rape and other sexual assault crimes. All the legislation needs is President Pranab Mukherjee’s signature in order to become law.
“We have tried to bring in a strong law, which is pro-women and will act as a deterrent,” Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde told lawmakers in the upper house of Parliament which approved the bill Thursday.
The proposed law maintains death as the maximum penalty in cases where the victims dies or slips into a coma. It also defines stalking and voyeurism as crimes with punishments up to seven years.
Part of what allowed the proposed legislative package to pass through both sections of parliament was the removal of a more controversial provision that would lower the age of sexual consent from 18 to 16.
“All these so-called traditional-value people have no problem when children are forced into marriage by their parents,” said Nandita Rao, an attorney. “But they want to criminalize consensual sex. It’s hypocritical.”
