While acquitting a youth convicted for raping a minor girl with whom he had a ‘romantic affair’, Calcutta High Court made a few suggestions for both adolescent boys and girls. To girls, the court said, ‘Adolescent Girls Should Control Their Sexual Urges’..
New Delhi: There are several cases that are filed in the High Courts where an adolescent male is convicted for raping a minor girl but eventually it turns out that the boy and the girl were involved in a ‘romantic affair’. A similar case was taken up by the division bench of Justices Chitta Ranjan Dash and Partha Sarathi Sen of the Calcutta High Court who acquitted a youth convicted for raping a minor girl with whom he had a ‘romantic affair’. While giving this decision, the Court raised concerns over the POCSO Act conflating consensual acts among adolescents with sexual abuse, called for comprehensive rights based on sexual education and eventually, made certain observations and suggestions for both boys and girls.
‘Adolescent Girls Should Control Their Sexual Urges..’
As mentioned earlier, the Calcutta High Court made some observations and proposed a ‘dute/obligation-based approach’ with duties for both males and females in the adolescence phase. With respect to the duties of adolescent females, the Court suggested the a few things. It is the duty of every female adolescent to:
- Protect her right to integrity of her body
- Protect her dignity and self-worth
- Thrive for overall development of her self transcending gender barriers
- Control sexual urge/urges as in the eyes of the society she is the looser when she gives in to enjoy the sexual pleasure of hardly two minutes
- Protect her right to autonomy of her body and her privacy
Calcutta High Court’s Suggestion For Adolescent Males
For the adolescent males, Calcutta High Courts Division Bench’s order reads, ‘It is the duty of a male adolescent to respect the aforesaid duties of a young girl or woman and he should train his mind to respect a woman, her self worth, her dignity & privacy, and right to autonomy of her body.’
High Court On Sex Education
On sex education, the court order read, ‘For the aforesaid purpose charity should begin at home and the parents should be the first teachers. We therefore feel that parental guidance and education to children specially the girls to recognise bad touch, bad signs, bad advances and bad company is necessary specially with emphasis on their health and reproductive system to have sex at an age not sanctioned by law.
Similarly, parental guidance and education so far as boys are concerned is to include how to respect a woman; how to keep dignity of a woman; how to protect the integrity of body of a woman; and how to befriend a woman without being aroused by sexual urge even if there is advances from the other side till he becomes capable to maintain a family.