Female Genital Mutilation- A Trauma for Life

Nilika Sett
Lloyd Law College, India

Volume III, Issue IV, 2020

As the world is moving towards gender neutrality, cases of grave violation of human rights could be traced back to rural parts of Africa, Europe and Asia.  The practice of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is an internationally recognised violation of Human rights of women and children. United Nations have laid down various guidelines for the curbing of the practice and raise awareness among the communities. Though the framework on FGM forms the part of international law, the States have discrepancies when it comes for the ratification. Hence it becomes essential to have a municipal law to penalise the wrongdoer. The paper deals with the analysation of the scenario in India concerning the mutilation practice. The study highlights the drawbacks of the municipal provisions for curbing FGM. The practice has been judicially criticised in the case of Sunita Tiwari v. Union of India which pronounced that provisions of POCSO and IPC would address the practice as an offence. Nevertheless, it is a matter of concern that the term female genital mutilation is neither defined in municipal law nor realised to have a dedicated provision for the offence.