Ruchi: 18 is not old enough

While premarital sex is still a taboo in the Indian society, doctors, lawyers and social workers believe there are several cases of premarital sex among teenagers and the numbers are increasing by the day. Many people believe that the laws need to be tweaked to fit in with the changing social norms.  Womentalk blogger Debarati Mukherjee spoke to five Indian women from diverse backgrounds and recorded their reactions to the changing laws.

18 too early: Ruchi Kohli

Ruchi Kohli, 26 year old housewife believes even 18 is not the right age for consensual sex. She says, “Although the government thinks 18 is better than 16, I believe 21 is the right age for consensual sex, for women or men. Both the partners need to understand each other and just not experiment with it. It is not that only the body conditions matter; maturity and knowledge to understand things and handling them in the long run matter more.  Raising it to 21 will remove the stigma attached to premarital sex and the legal age of marriage.”

But is sex education also restricted by age? Ruchi opines, “Children who are in their early teens need not be educated about their bodily functions. The reason is teenagers often believe that what is taught should be tried out too. This will bring in untoward incidents in the society.”

Ruchi has something for people who say that lowering the age can reduce social crimes : “People who rape women are basically perverts and mentally sick, for them, age or face, nothing matters- what matters is just the woman!”

Numbers don’t matter: Sucheta K

Young and energetic IT professional Sucheta thinks age doesn’t really matter when it comes to keeping crimes against women under control. She says, “It is the mindset of the people that needs to change and not the consensual age for sex. Whether it is 16 or 18, it hardly matters as there is not much difference.

In two years a teen will not understand and learn everything that needs his or her attention.  These days, children are more mature than their predecessors. They understand their body and feelings better. They no longer hold that curiosity about sex the way their parents did. So I think reducing the consensual sex age to 15 would be even better as then there will be nothing that they need to hide from their elders.”

Kanchan: Maturity comes with age

Maturity comes with time: Kanchan Raghute

Dr. Kanchan Raghute, a practising physician based in Pune feels physical viability comes with age. She says, “Lowering the sex age to 16 or keeping it to 18 either way is not a great job as far as the body of a woman is concerned. It is only when she is 21 and more, that her body is physically and mentally fit to lead a good sex life. At the age of 16 her mental and physical growth are both restricted to a certain extent. Even if she is matured to understand the meaning of leading a sexually active life, the outcome can take a toll on her life. We have witnessed deaths of young mothers and anaemic children since the days of our grannies. I don’t think it is time to return back to that age.”

Laws need a change: Amisha Khurana

Lawyer Amisha Khurana believes the present laws are not good enogh to judge people’s sexual behaviour. She expresses, “There are lot of registered cases where a young girl under 18 had sex with her partner and the man was accused of alleged rape, although the whole matter was consensual. There are orthodox parents who use the law to convict and separate these couples. We can’t restrict one’s sexual behaviour. All we can do is, is educate them properly so that they do not fall prey to sexually transmitted diseases. If the age of consensual sex is lowered to 16 as it is in most countries around the world, then cases like this need not get tabled under rape.” She further adds, “To show ourselves as responsible citizens of a developed nation, I think India should not have raised the consensual sex age to 18.”

Ideally 18: Pooja Gauri

Graduate student Pooja Gauri is of the opinion that 18 years is perhaps the right age for consensual sex. She states, “When a girl or a boy is 16 years old, he or she is too small to identify the outcome of leading an active sex life. However, it is only when she reaches the age of 17 and more that she or he knows about the human body and how it functions. But this does not mean that he or she is mature enough to handle things effectively. At the age of 17, do you think he or she can take the responsibility of a baby if it is born out of their relationship? We need to think of all these before really questioning the government about the change in laws.”

Author: Debarati Mukherjee

Editor: Manasi Gopalakrishnan