-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 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 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 Times of India With violence against Indian women on the rise, the debate over feminist politics and its relevance has acquired new importance. Academic Nivedita Menon has researched this in Seeing Like A Feminist. Speaking with Amrita Nandy, Menon discussed the role and energy of feminism today, how rape and dress are analysed by convention versus feminism — and how feminism eventually liberates women, even from being feminists: * You write...

-The Hindustan Times In the wake of the barbaric gang rape on a Delhi bus in which one of the attackers is thought to have been a juvenile, India will amend its laws to treat such criminals as adults for the purposes of punishment in some cases. Women and child development minister Krishna Tirath told HT on Friday that the Juvenile Justice (JJ) Act will be amended to treat those over...