Madhya Pradesh home minister Bhupendra Singh on Tuesday claimed that the increase in cases of children being raped and assaulted was directly correlated to people watching porn, The Times of India reported. He said that the government was contemplating banning porn in the state and would soon approach the Centre with the proposal.
“A study by the Madhya Pradesh home department revealed pornography is adversely impacting childhood, with even young boys and girls getting easy access to it,” Singh told reporters at the state secretariat. “Rapes and sexual assaults are a result of access to these sites.”
The minister said that the government had written to the Union Home Ministry about banning 25 such websites, DNA reported.
The minister’s remarks come in the wake of a spate of child sexual assault cases that have been reported from across the country. The murder of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua in Jammu who was allegedly raped and the alleged rape of a teenager in Unnao triggered protests in several cities. In response to these incidents, the Centre enacted an ordinance that allows the death penalty for rape of girls below 12 years of age.
Singh lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi for bringing in the ordinance and claimed that the Madhya Pradesh government approved a similar bill in November 2017, The Times of India reported.
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