In a cabinet meeting held on Saturday in New Delhi, the government passed an ordinance to make the rape of children under the age of 12 an offence punishable by death.
It comes after widespread anger over the alleged rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua in Jammu and Kashmir and over the alleged rape of a young woman in Unnao in Uttar Pradesh.
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Union Minister for Child and Development, Maneka Gandhi had suggested this idea around two weeks ago. While speaking to the media she said that when any child under the age of 12 is raped, then the death penalty should be sought.
Harshvardhan Tripathi, a senior journalist and Fellow at the SPMRF Foundation - a think tank affiliated to the BJP, told SBS Hindi that "sometimes people make up their mind and the government has to act on that".
An Indian woman holds a poster with a portrait of the 8 year-old girl who was raped and murdered. Source: AAP
He said that for a long time and especially after the Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case in 2012, it was said that at least for these kinds of crimes there must be a punishment that acts as a deterrence.
Mr Tripathi referred to the two recent incidents of Kathua and Unnao. In Kathua an eight-year-old girl was allegedly raped and murdered while in Unnao a young girl was allegedly raped. Arrests have been made in both cases; in the latter, an MLA (elected member of the state legislator) from the ruling BJP party was arrested by the CBI.
Mr Tripathi said that after comments from Prime Minister Narendra Modi that "those who commit crimes against women will not be spared" and from Union Minister Gen V. K Singh who in reference to the Kathua case said " We have failed her as humans", it was expected that the Government will take some such step.
He added that the ordinance will now go to parliament but he said he expects that it will receive support from all parties and could be made into law perhaps as early as the next Parliament session.
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