{"id":35818,"date":"2021-08-24T15:30:26","date_gmt":"2021-08-24T06:30:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/global-development\/2021\/aug\/24\/my-is-i-fell-in-love-should-india-rethink-tough-laws-on-underage-sex"},"modified":"2021-08-24T15:30:26","modified_gmt":"2021-08-24T06:30:26","slug":"my-crime-is-i-fell-in-love-should-india-rethink-tough-laws-on-underage-sex","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/?p=35818","title":{"rendered":"\u2018My crime is I fell in love\u2019: should India rethink tough laws on underage sex?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Laws intended to tackle child abuse are resulting in young men in consensual relationships being imprisoned. Activists argue a more nuanced approach is needed<\/p>\n<p>Mani*, 21, began dating Noor*, 17, two years ago. They couldn\u2019t see each other during the Covid lockdowns, but when restrictions began to ease, they would meet on the deserted banks of a canal in a small town in Tamil Nadu. The couple hoped to marry one day, but then Noor fell pregnant, and life turned into a nightmare.<\/p>\n<p>Two months ago, Mani was charged with rape under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (<a href=\"https:\/\/wcd.nic.in\/sites\/default\/files\/POCSO-ModelGuidelines.pdf\">Pocso<\/a>) law. After 48 days in jail, he was released on bail. If convicted, he faces life imprisonment.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/global-development\/2021\/aug\/24\/my-is-i-fell-in-love-should-india-rethink-tough-laws-on-underage-sex\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Laws intended to tackle child abuse are resulting in young men in consensual relationships being imprisoned. Activists argue a more nuanced approach is neededMani*, 21, began dating Noor*, 17, two years ago. They couldn\u2019t see each other during the Covi&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2465,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sns_share_botton_hide":"","vkExUnit_sns_title":"","_vk_print_noindex":"","sitemap_hide":"","_veu_custom_css":"","veu_display_promotion_alert":"","vkexunit_cta_each_option":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[59,62,1289,75,61,42,1050],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-global-development","category-india","category-sex","category-sexuality","category-south-and-central-asia","category-world-news","category-young-people"],"veu_head_title_object":{"title":"","add_site_title":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2465"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35818"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35818\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35819,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35818\/revisions\/35819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}