Till now, the word child was used to define any person below the age of 18 years. But now for the first time, the Supreme Court seeks to enact different laws for children below 10 years. As the cases of molesting children were on high, the Supreme Court has advised the government to enact strict laws to treat the culprits. The Supreme Court has made such remarks while hearing a petition filed by the Supreme Court Women Lawyers’ Association (SCWLA).

The SCWLA filed a PIL in the Supreme Court for imposing “castration as an additional punishment for child sex abusers and child rapists”. While hearing the PIL- the Bench led by Justice Dipak Misra, said Parliament has to separately define the word 'child' in terms of rape. Such a new definition would enable the legal system to treat the child molesters with much harshness. He also wished to know the government’s response over the demand for castration.

The demand for castration of child rapists is not a new one. It has come right from the Madras High court, a few months back. Justice N Kirubakaran of the Madras High Court while delivering a judgment has asked the centre to consider castration for the rapists. The growing demand for such a punishment has too many reasons to justify. India has witnessed more than 151% of increase in child rapes over the last five years. In a recent shocker, a 28 day old baby girl was raped in the Bulandshahar district of Uttar Pradesh! Several countries like US, Russia, Indonesia, and Poland were implementing castration to deal with the rapists and warn the rest. So, the debate for such punishment in India, would start soon!