There is a growing demand, especially after the Delhi gangrape case, that a rapist of 16 years of age should not be considered a minor. Consensual sexual intercourse between two young adults occurs throughout rural and urban India and should not be connected to, or confused with, the institution of marriage. However, we must ensure that these decisions are not influenced by traditional connections between sex and marriage. Within this cultural framework, it is a struggle to award adolescents the right to space, identity and respect. Globalisation introduces new information and communication technologies, increases urban migration and the dissolution of the traditional family — all of this affects adolescent sexual behaviour as well. Furthermore, women’s decision to engage in consensual sex should not be conflated with the moral fabric of Indian society.

For God’s sake use cohesive and holistic approach while formulating a law. What kind of contradiction is this On one hand you talk of giving better education and professional opportunities to girls and then you try to give legal support for indulging in sexual activities with them at 16. If at 16, an 11th class school-going girl becomes pregnant, will there not be large-scale school dropouts Think of teenage pregnancies and the mental, physical and emotional China Spandex Fabric manufacturers transformation teenagers go through in such an event. The expanding horizons of young adolescents are filled with explicit and implicit messages about sex and gender — some clear and consistent, some ambiguous or conflicting.$Don’t mix sex and marriage Ranjana Kumari***In India, where the legal age of marriage is 18 years for a girl, how can you enact a law which makes 16 to be the age of consent for sex A great deal of thought and study went into fixing the age of valid marriage at 18. If you argue that teenagers today are advanced in every field as compared to their parents at their age, agreed.

It is obvious that the real concern is controlling women’s sexuality.Discussions regarding the age of sexual consent must focus on women and men’s biological and emotional maturity to engage in sexual intercourse and to fully consent to intercourse. Knowledge of an act is not enough to make a person wise enough to “consent” for that act. In India, the words “child” and “adult” are loaded with deep-rooted cultural connotations. While enacting the Child Marriage Act, our policy and lawmakers took into consideration the fact that a girl below the age of 18 is physically and mentally not fit to tie the nuptial knot.2 billion people and, even so, information of sex is different than handling the responsibility and consequences of indulging in sexual activities. Access to magazines, movies, TV and the Internet provides contact to an increasingly globalised and sexualised youth culture that leaks into what may already be a confusing milieu of expectations and ideologies. Those arguing for 16 years as the age of consent probably don’t count women as part of the country’s future! The child marriage law was a big reformational step in modern India.