Dr. Shailesh Kumar presented a paper at the Critical Legal Conference 2023 hosted by Durham Law School, held at the Durham University, Durham, UK from 11th to 13th September.
He presented his paper titled ‘To seek refuge or to hide from: Law’s Violence, ‘Love Affairs’, and Sexual Autonomy of Adolescents in India’ under the theme ‘Legal Ordering of Gender and Sex’ where he shared his PhD research empirical findings along with an analysis of recent appellate courts’ decisions in the cases of child sexual abuse from India.
The paper discussed how not only the violence of law, through the POCSO Act (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012), is inflicted on the bodies and lives of adolescent boys/ adult men, but it also jeopardises the sexual autonomy of adolescents thus reinforcing patriarchal norm of familial/parental sexual control and disciplining in the name of caste supremacy and honour. The paper also delved into how the adolescents exercising sexual autonomy are being painted by the same brush of sexual violence by this legislation and are forced to wonder of whether to hide in or from the law.
His PhD thesis can be accessed from his personal website homepage here: Shailesh Kumar, PhD | Law Academic, Criminologist, Writer
