Prime Minister Narendra Modi has reacted to criticism that he did not deal with the recent rape and murder of a girl swiftly enough.
The Indian government approved a new measure on Saturday that will prescribe capital punishment for anyone convicted of raping children under the age of 12. The move came after Prime Minister Narendra Modi called an emergency Cabinet meeting in the wake of a series of cases that sparked outrage and protest across the country.
The recent rape and murder of and an 8-year-old girl in Jammu-Kashmir state brought the matter of sexual violence against minors back into the national spotlight as locals accused the ruling Hindu nationalist party of siding with the perpetrator, as the victim was Muslim.
A similar incident occurred around the same time, when a girl was allegedly raped by a ruling party lawmaker in Uttar Pradesh state.
Nine suspects, including a politician and four police officials have been arrested in connection with the two cases.
Modi has been accused of failing to act quickly enough after the girls were attacked.
New Delhi is trying once again to crack down on rampant violence against girls and women, having already passed strict new laws in 2013. At that time, lawmakers were responding to the gang rape and murder of a young woman on a bus in the capital that led to a global outcry.
The new laws included doubling the prison sentence for rape to 2 years and criminalizing voyeurism and stalking.
Lawyer Abha Singh welcomed Saturday’s measure, and said it would probably help deter men from attacking girls or women. However, she urged the government to do something about the notoriously backed-up Indian justice system, which currently has 30 million pending cases.
“The conviction rate in rape cases in India was only 28%, implying that 72 out of 100 suspects are going unpunished,” she was quoted by the Associated Press as saying.
This article was originally published on DW.com. Its content is created separately from USA TODAY.
