Historical Background Of Sexual Offences In India

Ganesh Kiran BS* & Dr. Jyothi Vishwanath**

ABSTRACT

The sexual offence is perhaps is an old as the human civilization itself. The earliest crimes that we could trace would lead us to murder abduction and rape that were prevalent among the nomad race. The civil actions what we see today are of much later origin. Ancient times saw victors ravishing the women of the vanquished whenever there was a war between two nations.

The ravishing of women of the fallen race was almost a thumb of rule and regularly followed by the soldiers of the victorious army. The women’s movements in British can be divided into four stages. During the first stage from 1840-1870 Women’s organization worked on a variety of issues. The second stage from1871to 1905 was dominated by constitutional women suffrage organization, which focused entirely on gaining the right to vote, but adopted militant tactics which led in 1918 to the enfranchisement of women over 30 years of age. The dominant feature of the fourth stage from 1919 to1930 was extension of women franchise to include all women over 21 years. Within the Indian subcontinent there have been infinite variations on the status of women diverging, according to cultural milieu, family structure, class, caste, property rights and morals.