Opinion | Bombay High Court’s regressive ruling on groping heaps more trauma on India’s women and girls
- Sexual abuse and street harassment are such major issues for Indian women and girls that it seems unbelievable that a judge would make a distinction between molestation and sexual assault. For most, one is not removed from the other
A 39-year-old man received three years imprisonment in February 2020 for groping the breasts and attempting to remove the clothes of a 12-year-old girl in Nagpur, a city in western India. On January 19 this year, a Bombay High Court judge ruled that groping a child’s breasts without “skin-to-skin contact” was not sexual assault as defined under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.
The judge modified the earlier order, which found the man guilty of groping, kidnapping, wrongful confinement and attempting to remove the girl’s salwar, or trousers. She declared the punishment too stringent and not in proportion to the crime.
Archaic terms such as “eve-teasing” and “outraging the modesty of a woman” belittle the issue’s seriousness. They put the burden on the victim to behave more “modestly” to prevent such incidents.
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