The 57-page document, A Guide to Eliminating the Practice of FGM in India, analyses various gender-based legislations, and highlights the need for a separate and specific law to deal with FGM.
After an online petition urging the government to ban Female Genital Mutilation received 90,000 signatures, the Lawyers Collective Women's Rights Initiative (LCWRI) along with Speak Out on FGM had drawn detailed recommendations on various aspects of prevention, redressal, and rehabilitation of any act of FGM that can be used to draft a strong anti-FGM law.
The 57-page document, A Guide to Eliminating the Practice of FGM in India, analyses various gender-based legislations, and highlights the need for a separate and specific law to deal with FGM.
Indira Jaising, a senior advocate in the Supreme Court, said that every act or practice must stand the scrutiny of the Constitution of India. "FGM is not only illegal, but is also unconstitutional as it disproportionally impacts the girl child. It is prohibited by international conventions which India has signed," she said.
Recently, Maneka Gandhi, Women and Child Development Minister, said that the custom of FGM practised by the Bohra community should be banned in India. The Union minister said that if the community did not stop the practice on its own, the Centre would introduce a law to stop it.
More than 33 countries have laws that criminalise FGM with penalties ranging from 3 months to maximum of life in prison.
The legal document suggests that those who perform or propagate FGM should be held guilty under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860, such as Sections 324 (voluntarily causing hurt by weapons or means), 326 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt by weapons or means). Parents and cutters could also be held under POSCO Act sections 3(b) (committing penetrative sexual assault on a child).
Masooma Ranalvi, Convenor of Speak Out on FGM, said that the recent case filed against three Bohras for performing FGM on multiple girls in the USA has hit home the realisation that FGM is secretly and silently being perpetuated. "A law against the practice of FGM will serve as a strong deterrent in the otherwise law-abiding Bohra community," she added.
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