In welcome news,The Centre today passed an ordinance to award death sentence to the rapists of children below the age of 12.

Following a Union Cabinet meeting, the government passed the amendment in the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, under which Minimum punishment in case of rape of women has been increased from rigorous imprisonment of 7 years to 10 years, extendable to life imprisonment; in case of gang rape of a girl below 12 years, punishment will be life imprisonment or death sentence.

This is in reaction to the gang-rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Jammu and Kashmir's Kathua district and also the gangrape of another minor in Unnao, Uttar Pradesh, allegedly by a BJP MLA.

Union Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi had earlier expressed her ministry's intention to amend the POCSO to make provision for death penalty in such cases.