TERMINATION OF ADOLESCENT PREGNANCY, A SOCIETAL STIGMA By- Madhushree Sarkar & Purba Chakraborty
TERMINATION OF ADOLESCENT PREGNANCY,
A SOCIETAL STIGMA
“Abuse is never contained to a
present moment, it lingers across a person’s lifetime and has pervasive
long-term ramifications”
Authored By- Madhushree Sarkar
& Purba Chakraborty
INTRODUCTION:
In the past centuries where custom
and religion had played a wider role, there adolescent pregnancy was not an
illegal act as child marriage was prevalent. But with time it is observed that
such adolescent pregnancy was creating a health hazard to the life of the women
bearing it. So then laws were evolved to safeguard the women who were less than
18 years of age. But now in the 21th century teenage pregnancy has
increased because of the romantic adolescent relationship and child sexual
abuse. In today’s time the word child sexual abuse can be divided into two sub
categories (1) non consensual child sexual abuse & (2) consensual sexual
adolescent relationships. Both the sub categories are having criminal
consequences. It is just that the minor i.e.; the children under 18years can go
for abortion if the gestation period is within 20-24 weeks, even if the
pregnancy is the result of the consensual sexual relationship between minors.
CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE AND LAWS RELATING TO IT:
Child sexual abuse has a wider ambit
which refers to a kind of child abuse where an adult or an adolescent person
uses or exploits a child for sexual purposes. In most of the situations, the
exploiters are from home, school or from neighborhood. Children being of a very
tender age initially do not understand what they are going through and which
causes a great trauma in their mind. The act of sexual abuse is done either by
luring the child or by giving threat so we can say it is an act which is non
consensual i.e.; the child’s consent is missing. IPC did not have any stringent
laws relating to child sexual abuse prior but
from 2018 sections like 376AB Punishment for rape on woman under 12 yrs
of age ; section 376DA Punishment for gang rape on a woman under sixteen years
of age and section 376DB Punishment of women under 12 years of age has been
added to IPC[1]. The
Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 is based on Article 15(3)
of the Indian Constitution which allows the government to take special measures
for women and children[2].
It is a gender neutral law so it comprises boy child and as well as girl child
under 18 years as “child”. Unlike IPC the Protection of Children from Sexual
Offence Act, 2012 considers the accused “guilty until proven innocent”. The
child sexual abuse often leads to pregnancy but this is the point which
triggers the social stigma in the guardians mind because as per the law i.e.; under section 19 of the POCSO Act which
introduces a mandatory police reporting of such offence and penalizes those who
fails to do so. The family of the victim hesitates to file a complaint as that
would hamper their family honors and because of which they approach an
unqualified doctor for medical termination of pregnancy. Under Rule 3B (b) of
the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Rules minors can seek abortion of
pregnancy of a term 20-24 weeks[3].
But still most family avoid approaching
the registered medical practitioners as they are duty bound to report it to the police before dealing
with such pregnancy which has aroused from a sexual assault of the minor. So
now the Registered Medical Practitioner (RMP) is exempted from disclosing the
personal details of the minor who is subjected to sexual abuse and whose
pregnancy has resulted from such sexual assault itself.
Instances of consensual adolescent
sexual relationships are witnessed in the contemporary society. As a natural
phenomenon it has been observed that every adolescent goes through a lot of
physical and mental growth during their 16-19 years of age due to which they tend
to get attracted to their sexual preferences which is biological in nature but
our law has so far not acknowledged the biological factors as an exception .And
has made POCSO Act universal in terms of age of the victims. The age of consent
is 18years under POCSO ACT and these acts as a barrier in engaging in
consensual sexual relationships.
HARMONIOUS INTERPRETATION OF POCSO ACT and MTP ACT:
X versus The Principal Secretary, Health and
Family Welfare Department, Govt. of NCT of Delhi & Anr To ensure that the benefit of Rule 3B(b) is extended to all women under
18 years of age who engage in consensual sexual activity, it is necessary to
harmoniously read both the POCSO Act and the MTP Act. For the limited purposes
of providing medical termination of pregnancy in terms of the MTP Act, we
clarify that the RMP, only on request of the minor and the guardian of the
minor, need not disclose the identity and other personal details of the minor
in the information provided under Section 19(1) of the POCSO Act. The RMP who
has provided information under Section 19(1) of the POCSO Act (in reference to
a minor seeking medical termination of a pregnancy under the MTP Act) is also
exempt from disclosing the minor’s identity in any criminal proceedings which
may follow from the RMP’s report under Section 19(1) of the POCSO Act. Such an
interpretation would prevent any conflict between the statutory obligation of
the RMP to mandatorily report the offence under the POCSO Act and the rights of
privacy and reproductive autonomy of the minor under Article 21 of the
Constitution. It could not possibly be the legislature’s intent to deprive
minors of safe abortions[4].
Prevention is better than cure:
As a society we have a lot to do for the
minors who do have the potential to do great in their life time and can be an
asset for the society, so just because of a act where she or he did not have an
active role so merely that act should not be a hurdle in the growth of such
child. And as a society we should not look down upon the victim of such sexual
abuse. Because our conduct towards them will tarnishes their vulnerable mind.
The children below 18 years are at a tender age. At this age if they are
subjected to sexual violence then they carry the trauma within them for life
and which is a pullback in their development so they should be given counseling
from the expert counselors and a lot of support from family and society as
others behavior leaves an impact in their life. And workshops should be carried
out in the village level by the Anganwadi workers to teach the children about
good touch and unsafe touch. And by this the children can be aware of such
unsafe touch. To deal with adolescent pregnancies the awareness on sex
education should be given from class 8 onwards as this is the tender age where
children go through lots of hormonal changes and for which they do not have an
answer to and they land up taking advices from wrong people which leads them to
pregnancies and they face criminal consequences.