-The Hindu Many State governments favour bringing down the age bar for juvenile offenders from 18 years to 16 to deal with growing cases of sexual assault. A meeting of State Directors-General of Police and Chief Secretaries held on Friday here, however, could not come to a consensus on awarding the death penalty to rape convicts. In the rape case of the 23-year-old physiotherapy student, one of the six people allegedly involved...

-The Hindustan Times Rapes by juveniles have increased fivefold in a decade since 2000, when its definition was modified to include children of 16 to 18 years under the category. The year 2011 recorded 1,149 rapes by juveniles — most of them between 16-18 years. In 2000, the number was just 198. As per the modified Juvenile Justice Act, the maximum punishment for a crime committed by a juvenile is three years — as...

-The Indian Express At a time when there’s a chorus for showing no leniency to the juvenile among the six arrested for the gangrape of the 23-year-old woman who later died in a Singapore hospital, children’s rights workers are cautioning that laws should not be bent simply because there is public outrage. Minna Kabir, voluntary children’s rights worker who has long been associated with the legal aid cell at the juvenile justice...

-The Indian Express National Commission for Protection of Child Rights chief Shantha Sinha Saturday opposed Women and Child Development Minister Krishna Tirath’s demand that the 17-year-old involved in the Delhi gangrape be tried as an adult. Sinha is also not in favour of “knee-jerk revisions” in the age provision in the Juvenile Justice Act that Tirath has hinted at. “Law is not made over one unique case. NCPCR is against any dilution of...

-Tehelka.com The social scientist supports RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's remark on rapes and says there is a connection between modernisation, urbanisation and violence against women While Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh supremo Mohan Bhagwat is being criticised for his comment that rapes occur only in cities, not in rural India, prominent public intellectual and social scientist Ashis Nandy has come out in his support. Speaking to Tehelka, Nandy says there is a connection between...