Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, July 18
Injecting children with growth hormones with the intention of fastening their sexual growth will soon be a crime in India.
The penal provision is part of the landmark Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Amendment Bill 2019, which prescribes death penalty for aggravated penetrative sexual assault on children, besides criminalising penetrative sexual assault on children below 16, with a minimum 20-year rigorous imprisonment that can extend to the remainder of convict’s natural life.
This same Bill defines child pornography for the first time and raises jail terms for the crime. A key feature of the Bill that the anti-trafficking sector is hailing is the criminalisation of injection of growth hormones like oxytocin among minors to make them look like sexually active adults.
The POCSO Amendment Bill includes administration of growth hormones to children among the definitions of aggravated sexual assault punishable with imprisonment of not be less than five years which may extend to seven years and fine.
Banning the use of growth hormone in children, the new Bill introduced in Rajya Sabha today by Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani, includes among definitions of aggravated sexual assaulter “whoever persuades, induces, entices or coerces a child to get administered any administers or directs anyone to administer, help in getting administered any drug or hormone or any chemical substance, to a child with the intent that such a child attains early sexual maturity.”
The most widely administered sex growth hormone in India is oxytocin which is also used to induce child birth, improve milk production among milch cattle and boost the appearance of fruits and vegetables.
“At least six out of 10 minor victims of sex trafficking we rescue have reported being injected with growth hormones. The step to criminalise this move was long sought.” Rishi Kant of Shakti Vahini, an agency working closely with the government on trafficking prevention said today.
The government last year placed major curbs on the production and sale of oxytocin. All private manufacturing of oxytocin ended on July 1, 2018, and its production for domestic use was restricted to one public sector company, Karnataka Antibiotics and Pharmaceuticals Limited (KAPL).
Health Ministry says oxytocin formulations for domestic consumption are only being supplied by KAPL to registered hospitals and clinics in public and private sector directly. “Oxytocin in any form or name is not being allowed through retail chemists. Those who want oxytocin for medical use placing orders directly with KAPL,” a government source told The Tribune.
Imports banned last year
The Centre banned oxytocin imports on April 27 last year after a March 15, 2013 order of the Himachal Pradesh High Court said large scale clandestine manufacture of the drug was harming animals and humans alike
from The Tribune https://ift.tt/2Gk6G84
via Today’s News Headlines
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