Illustrations/Ravi Jadhav

As the demand for stringent punishment for child sexual abuse grows across the nation after the brutal confinement, rape and murder of an eight-year-old in Kathua, even as a similar crime was unearthed in Surat, how do other countries protect their children? What kind of punishment is meted out to offenders? Here is an overview of child sexual abuse laws and punishment for offenders in other countries, and under POCSO in India. Even as this page goes to print, the Law Ministry is contemplating changes in POCSO to introduce the death penalty to those convicted of sexually abusing children up to age 12 years, the Supreme Court was informed yesterday.