 I will speak from my understanding experience of working in the criminal legal system and why in the death penalty or increasing to the remainder of life or enhancing the minimum sentence to 20 years, 10 years, etc. As well as the other portions of the amendment would say complete the investigation in two months, finish the trial in three months, while none of these inspire any confidence given the manner in which the criminal legal system works. And the fact that the criminal justice system is in a crisis mode was said no less than by the former Chief Justice of India, Justice Roda, when he was the Chief Justice of India. And we do not see any substantive interventions which will actually make the criminal justice system work. I think we've just heard from the mother that the trial is going on since 2015 and she is sounding quite bleak as to when is this process likely to conclude. So the fact that the trials should conclude in less than three months was actually said in the 2013 amendments also, nothing new has suddenly happened. There's a section 309 of the Code of Criminal Procedure which says once the evidence recording begins then it must be concluded within three months. Barely any trial has ever concluded in a case of sexual violence in three months and there are reasons for it. I think it would be really good if some of you were to go and stand outside what is called a poxocote and as was said by Justice Shah, there is no poxocote. That court, that judge has to do many other cases. He goes to the Vulnerable Witness Court for recording the evidence of the child in that particular case but his court list, his cause list outside will show you that there are multiple cases. So how will these trials simply because it's written in an ordinance, how will it become the manner in which this will happen, where is the substantive investment of resources coming from. Nobody is talking about that and it's very important for the media to ask those detailed questions because we've seen this kind of thing happen in the past and the experience has been to the country that things do not change because they cannot change by simply putting out a magic wand is going to be waved for us. The Vulnerable Witness Court which exists in almost every district court, I don't think in all yet but in almost every district court in Delhi, is an important enabling mechanism to create sensitivity and accessibility for a child victim of sexual violence. But these courts do not exist in any other part of the country. Surely it's important to extend those kind of measures to other parts of the country. Of course they will require again serious investment of time and resources. There is something interesting that has been said in the under subtext of this ordinance. The ordinance does not create this enhancement of penalty for the boy child only for the girl child and that too then makes a distinction between girls under 12 years of age and girls between 12 and 16 years of age. I think we need to unpack this a little. First coxswam was for all children. I don't know why the sexual violence of a boy child and I'm sure Anuja and Rahi and Haq would be able to tell us that when they work with survivors, male survivors of child sexual abuse the trauma is as real and needs as much healing and redressal. So why has this been distinguished? Rahi has a society saying that we are more agreed if a girl is sexually violated and is that again a patriarchal, limitary, you know, deceiving the law. And why under 12, actually if you read the British time cases, you will see that in the colonial jurisprudence the notion was established that a girl child under 12 is an innocent child. But a girl of between 12 and 16 may well have lived, may have seduced and therefore her access to justice must be curtailed. And we know the whole discourse that has been spun for some time now around false cases and misuse of law. The rape law and any other law that women tried access. So I think we need to be a little careful. What is it that this ordinance is also saying to us? In the courtroom, special educators and interpreters are required to be present. Is there a single state in the country which has a list of special educators and interpreters who can be called upon or summoned by the court to enable or assist in examining a child? If you don't have it even in places like Delhi, you don't have it anywhere in the country. Compensation was an issue that was brought up by the parents. Compensation is not paid. Although the law originally was to pay compensation on the complaint being lodged. Is not paid because the courts are saying we don't know if this is a true case or false case. Let's see when the child comes. We will hear the child, then we will decide whether compensation is to be paid or not. So the rehabilitative element, money which may be needed actually for medical or other contingencies or for relocation. None of that is being made available by the state. I want to also draw attention to another aspect of this. Whether one looks at the Kathua case or the Urnaau case, after all what are these higher sentences being offered for? We are being told that this will stem impunity. If this is going to stem impunity, we need to then look into the facts and the factual narrative which is creating the impunity in the first place. In both these cases, those who were meant to conduct the investigation in a certain way, carry forward the case in a certain way, failed to discharge their statutory roles. In the 2013 amendment to the law, there was a very important provision introduced called Section 166-8 of the Indian Penal Code which was meant to hold police officers accountable if they did not investigate a case of sexual violence in accordance with the law. I think it would be very helpful if we actually find out, has this section ever been invoked? Whenever a case has come to light, all that has happened is that a senior police officer would either be transferred or suspended. No accountability is ever created through the law because it is the state which will have to take action against them. The state is reluctant to create accountability. The state is reluctant to break impunity, particularly where persons who are committing the offenses are affiliated to offices of political power or other state power or are socially or economically powerful. I only want to end with saying that the aspect of the death penalty was actually examined. Similar kind of outcry was seen in 2012. It was about death penalty and chemical concentration, etc. These things were examined. A very large cross-section of the population was consulted on this and thereafter it was decided to not go down the route of death penalty both for reasons which we have been told are peculiar and specific to child sexual abuse and sexual violence against women and also because the attention is then taken away and I would only end with saying that we really must focus and compare the government and parliament must take heed of this. We do not have anyone looking at why trials are crippled. Why is the criminal justice system failing? Those of us who work with the criminal justice system can pinpoint to you exactly where the loopholes are. Even today the acquittals are very high and it's not for no reason that the acquittals are high. If you want to look at the nature of investigations simply substituting a male police officer with a female police officer is rank tokenism. Yes it may create an easier environment to speak but we hurt the mother and that is the repeated experience of everyone. The police needs to be both they need to understand what is child sexual abuse. They need to understand gender based crime and they need to know the law. So we need professional and sensitive policing and it's not impossible. Other jurisdictions have done this. In the UK they have a separate office of the prosecutor which only deals with sexual crimes. As was said by Justice Shah where is your trained prosecutor? Coming to a one off training does not help. That carder of prosecutors only and only deals with those kind of crimes. We do have in this country after all an enforcement directorate which deals with certain kinds of economic offenses. It must, it's a specialized issue. Why do we think that sexual violence and child sexual abuse is not a specified issue? It has its specificities in the crime in the investigation in the trial process. Therefore if the government and parliament is really committed and is serious there are substantive changes that need to be made but none of that stands reflected in this ordinance.