Brijbhanu Barua
speaker
127 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Jul 2026
last heard 19 Jul
Brijbhanu Barua’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 1.
Appearances
India has one of the toughest child sex abuse laws in the world, with strict definitions and mandatory minimum sentences.
The Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses Act, or POCSO, has been hailed as a major success, helping expose abuse, trafficking and child marriage.
But lawyers and campaigners now warn the same law is criminalizing young couples, with boys in consensual relationships facing charges that can carry sentences of up to life in prison.
I'm Rajbhanu Borua, and this is the documentary Love on Trial in the As Age of Consent Controversy from the BBC World Service.
So roll back the clock to 2012, when a young 23-year-old woman in Delhi is attacked on a bus.
It was so brutal that it galvanized people to take to the streets.
She dies of her injuries and four young men are later executed for her gang rape and murder.
Thousands defied orders to participate in these demonstrations.
The case becomes news around the world.
The country demands change.
And POXO, India's strict new sexual offense law, is born.
But the push to reform had actually been gathering momentum for much longer.
So it starts from, let's say, 70s, 80s, when there were feminist movements in different parts of India.
Dr. Shailesh Kumar is an academic who specializes in the history of sexual offense law in India.
Primarily around three significant cases.
One was the Mathura case.
Another was Ramiza B case.
And there was a third one, which is the Maya Tyagi case.
And one of these three cases, which is the Mathura case,
which is where there was a minor girl, an agricultural laborer, who was raped by two policemen inside the police station.
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