Sexual justice
Updated On: 07 July, 2024 07:03 AM IST | Mumbai | Paromita Vohra
Earlier, Uttarakhand passed a law requiring those in a live-in relationship to register when it starts and ends.
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Illustration/Uday Mohite
Of the many parts of the Bharatiya Nyay Samhita (BNS), the new criminal code that is causing anxiety, one is Clause 69. To put it simplistically, it makes punishable by upto ten years of prison, sexual intercourse had through deceit, for instance through a false promise of marriage. The instant response is alarm, that jilted women will use Clause 69 to vengefully persecute men.
However, the truth of the matter is that when it comes to sexual or relational matters, such laws are most often misused by parents, communities and the authorities in the service of social control. Take the example of POCSO, a law meant to protect children from sexual abuse. A large number of POCSO cases are filed by parents who oppose consensual teenage relationships, which even judges have noted—some queer, some inter-faith or inter-caste and some simply unacceptable because the idea of young people’s sexuality is so harshly stigmatized in our culture.
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