Network for Justice

Talked to @Pamphlet_in regarding attempts to get age of consent lowered to 16 (in other words, legalise adults having ‘consensual sex’ with schoolgirls) through Supreme Court @sewanyaya, along with partners @NetworkforJus and @DharmanshF, has been leading the fight to prevent it Details of this campaign here: sewanyaya.in/prevent-child-e…

A historic event happened in Delhi on Friday (7 Aug) More than 200 representatives and leaders from diverse sections of society gathered at Constitution Club of India and unanimously signed a Declaration opposing the lowering of age of consent from 18 to 16 years The gathering included - Heads of Child Commissions from Assam, Chandigarh, Gujarat, Delhi, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Tripura - Heads of Women Commissions from Tripura, Uttar Pradesh - Panchayat leaders - Activists working for safety of children and women We all held detailed discussions and forged a consensus. Signed the Declaration Most importantly, every one resolved to start a public awareness campaign at the grassroots to take it to villages and communities Shri @KanoongoPriyank led the event as chief guest and key speaker The event was very ably organised by @NetworkforJus and supported by us @sewanyaya along with @DharmanshF As many of you know, we started the campaign after Indira Jaisingh proposed lowering of age of consent under rape laws in a Supreme Court matter in May 2025 We filed our own intervention in the matter and enabled 10 interventions more. It has not come up for hearing since Recently, when a Supreme Court bench said that “15-18 is age of experimentation” - observation was made in a case of a 25-year-old man ‘consensually’ impregnating a 15-year-old girl - we intervened again Next hearing is that matter expected on 11 August We will now take the awareness to grassroots and will not stop until the idea is totally discarded.

Have filed an intervention petition in an ongoing matter in Supreme Court where a bench remarked that 15-18 years is age of experimentation and questioned POCSO on adult partners in such cases Thanks @LawBeatInd for writing about this intervention We - @sewanyaya and @NetworkforJus - are opposing the proposal to allow adults to have sexual with schoolgirls in the name of mutual consent. We have filed and enabled more than a dozen interventions in two matters on lowering age of sexual consent Grateful to @KanoongoPriyank for his guidance in this extremely crucial civilisational matter lawbeat.in/supreme-court-new…

.@sewanyaya and @NetworkforJus are countering the challenges to anti-conversion laws in various states in the Supreme Court We have already enabled 18 intervention petitions in the matter by real victims of forced conversions - whether through love traps, kidnapping or in institutions like orphanages The campaign is ongoing and we are enabling even more. To support this fight: sewanyaya.in/support

Going live on Spaces in 15 min We are getting a survivor who was trafficked at the age of 12. Listen to her story and decide what the Supreme Court’s loose statements on age of consent could lead to

IMPORTANT: A very important discussion on X-Spaces at 9 pm today Supreme Court judges have just called childhood an age of sexual experimentation, questioned POCSO in a case where 14-year-old girl went missing and got impregnated by 25-year-old Is the plan of lowering age of consent being carried out through a different channel? While our petitions are pending in Supreme Court in Indira Jaising's plea, why are judges making such observations in other matters? Join @KanoongoPriyank, @NetworkforJus and me as well as A SURVIVOR OF TRAFFICKING on Spaces today It concerns all of us Link: xitter.cf/i/spaces/1PJqrrLDBMAxb

A year ago, a Hindu woman studying at a college in Bhopal filed a police case against a college senior named Farhan that he befriended her under a false identity, and then drugged, raped, blackmailed and forcibly tried to convert her to Islam Soon after, several women from the same college came forward with similar complaints against different men Police found that the accused were part of the same gang and had the backing of a criminal named Shariq who is notorious in Bhopal by nickname ‘Machli’ Police found that the accused targeted Hindu girls in a coordinated manner - trapping one girl, then introducing her friend to another gang member, and so on They also facilitated opportunities for intimacy and then secretly recorded videos Two of the victims were sisters who had lost their parents long ago and were being raised in poverty by relatives. The scandal left them so shattered that one of them tried to kill herself and still bears a deep scar on her wrist The revelations were reported as ‘Bhopal sex scandal’ Such was the outrage over the shocking revelations that MP govt got Shariq’s house bulldozed, top police chief of MP got involved, women’s commission got involved, and several accused were arrested. They continue to be in jail The most important intervention came from NHRC member @KanoongoPriyank He closely monitored progress of the case, ensuring it was not diluted. Such was his impact that a close aide of Shariq once reached his office in Delhi and asked him to withdraw from the matter. Priyank Ji threw him out of his office. The incident was widely covered by the media Now comes his most significant intervention He conceptualised a program to educate college girls across Bhopal about this racket as well as legal and social support available to any girl who is trapped but either is not recognising it yet or is too scared to break free This program, named Sankalp, was taken up by @sewanyaya, run by @SanjeevSanskrit and me, and implemented through our partner @NetworkforJus We selected a group of women college students from Bhopal, trained them and deployed them to conduct large-scale awareness sessions across campuses In the past eight months, this group has educated over 8,000 girls across 100 colleges in Bhopal During the program, several who attended these sessions later reached out to the team privately and managed to get out of such situations, while three went on to file actual police cases. Yesterday, Priyank Ji and I were in Bhopal to mark the highly successful completion of the first year of this programme, along with MP Child Commission Chairperson Nivedita Sharma and the senior leadership of the LNCT Group of Colleges I also met the remarkable trainers, mentored by the superb @nidhikartikey and @SalujaSanat And I also met three victims of the scandal Their stories are disturbing and I will share them another time But I saw they have found their strongest support system and closest friends in the Sankalp team

Let them bark Proud to say that we are fighting the biggest fight in Supreme Court against any attempts to scrap anti-forced conversion laws We have enabled more than a dozen victims of forced conversions reach the apex court as interveners in petitions by Teesta Setalvad, Jamiat Ulema, Catholic Bishops’ Conference etc to scrap/dilute such laws filed The team behind this includes: @SanjeevSanskrit @satyanveshan @NetworkforJus @nidhikartikey @SalujaSanat @ShaktiSingh739 @RashtraJyoti @sewanyaya This crucial work is ongoing

Each component of UGC’s revised ‘anti-discrimination’ policy that is facing backlash has been brought about on recommendations made by Indira Jaisingh Including: - addition of OBC castes in list of victimised student groups. OBC includes many Muslim, Christian and socially dominant communities - No penalties for false or malicious complaints made against general category Hindu students by SC/ST (included converted groups)/OBC - No representation of general category Hindu students in complaint committees When these components were being suggested, relevant govt agencies failed to push back in time Jaisingh is the same lawyer who wants parents to have NO say if their school-going daughters are involved in sexual activities - a policy that would inevitably open school campuses to contraceptive distribution and pregnancy clinics on lines of several US states, besides forced conversions and dropouts due to teen pregnancy-marriage etc If we - @sewanyaya and @NetworkforJus, under inspiration from @KanoongoPriyank - had not pushed back legally, institutionally and publicly, the age-of-consent safeguard would have been diluted by now. Because non-stop hearings were supposed to be held three months ago in Supreme Court! SO, IT IS A PERPETUAL FIGHT. WITH NO ROOM FOR COMPLACENCY OR RETREAT