All India Christian Council calls for a national registry of all sexual offenders

Hyderabad, Dec 30, 2012: The All India Christian Council has stated that the Christian community hangs its head in grief and shame as India loses yet another Brave heart girl to sexual violence, said Rev Dr G Samuel vice President of the All India Christian Council. It offers prayers for the family members of the victim who has passed away. It demands immediate punishment under law for those who carried out the crime.

In recent years the nation has watched with horror the growing crimes against women and girls and the sad comment by the UN that India is one of the most unsafe countries in the world for women and girls. There is not a single day now in India where there is no report in the Indian newspapers of some sexual crime occurring against women. The rape of Dalit and tribal women is common place. Rape of girls within extended families is widely reported. Those who prey on minor girls roam free in the land.

'We have yet to see justice for countless victims of rape including those who were gang raped in Gujarat in the communal violence and those who were gang raped in Kandhamal in Orissa." said John Dayal the Secretary General of the All India Christian Council.

He said, ''For too long we have allowed a culture that targets our young girls under flimsy excuses of them following some outside culture, dress code and fashion. Any element of society that targets the way our women dress, appear and carry themselves should be condemned and brought under the law''.

Dr Joseph D'souza called upon the national government to immediately institute a national registry for all sexual offenders. Sexual offenders have a pattern and history and turn out to be habitual. Dr D'souza called upon the Andhra Pradesh, Chief Minister, Mr Kiran Reddy to take the lead and begin a registry for such sexual offenders and to immediately act on complaints filed by victims.

This menace of violence against women will not end unless there is a complete change of mindset in the culture towards women. A culture that allows degradation of human beings will not be able to effectively fight this menace, said the All India Christian Council.