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This article discusses the implications of sexual autonomy of children under international child rights regime upon Indian law. Indian general criminal law defining the offence of rape and a special statute defining different types of child sexual assault led to the inference that the current age of consent is 18 years. Despite statutory prohibition of child marriages in India, the general criminal law contains an explanatory provision exempting the rape of a married woman above the age of 15. The Supreme Court of India struck this down as discriminatory and inconsistent with existing provisions of law, increasing the age of consent of a married woman to 18. It is necessary for Indian law to clearly define the age of consent of children, and grant rights of sexual autonomy to children who are capable of making their own decisions, without compromising on penalising sexual offenders of children.

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Human rights law and practice offers a lucid, comprehensive understanding of human rights law through national and international human rights instruments and case law. In the preface, the author establishes the premise around which this book is constructed-that the term 'human rights' is ambiguous and can be used to describe a variety of legal relationships of entitlement, immunity, privilege and power with different results due to the different types of protection and procedures involved. Das questions the description of human rights as 'inalienable rights' and explains the evolution of the 'human' aspect of the term, with its origins in the French Revolution. The preface also echoes Amartya Sen's question regarding whether a theory of human rights is required. The book aims to answer this question in the affirmative by expounding on various theories that form the philosophical basis of the concept of human rights.