In the face of such normalization, the child is at increased risk. More so, since its childhood is already under threat as India is seeing the onset of early puberty in children. There are reports from as early as 6 to 10 years old with premature menarche (menstruation) in the girls and masturbation by boys while watching soft-porn which disguises itself as adult-content. Reasons include dietary: processed foods like bhujiyas and chips, chemically-concocted colas, exposure to pesticides and their byproducts through fruits and vegetables, growth-hormones in milk. Plus environmental pollutants like in plastic, obesity due to not enough open-air exercise which also leads to deficiency in Vitamin D due to lack of sunlight. Then there is the easily accessed information-overload, alongside pornography, which is unfiltered because the earlier parental-guardian-educational-societal fences, which informally convene a protective cordon around the child’s personal village, are all but collapsing.

Add to all of this the statistics of how many children get abused—sexually, physically, emotionally—and how many of these act out their short and long-term effects of Child Sexual Abuse. It’s a cocktail of calamities. The effects of this are already being seeing in, and by, society with crimes by children on the increase. Upon themselves. Among teens. Upon adults by children in the cusp-age of 17–18.

This would be an appropriate moment to study some statistics on why CPUs and CPCs are urgently required. Early puberty may also bring early sexualisation. What it doesn’t is emotional maturity. Certainly, there needs to be a cut-off age and it’s 18. But even when they touch 18, are teens truly completely capable of informed consent when it’s a process of their bodies and minds getting ready to step into adult lives from Minor to Major? Census 2011 shows that the 0–6 years population is 15.88 crores (158.8 million), that’s more than twice the population of France purely as perspective on the numbers. The current demographic is that nearly 45 crore (450 million) children are under 18 years of age. They form part of the 68 crore (680 million) which are under the age of 30, which means that every second person in India is currently less than 30 years of age. And 64 per cent of the population is under age of 34.

It’s a demographic dividend only if there is no social implosion.

Some salient legal rights of India’s children spelt out.

A: On 18 April 2013, for the first time in independent India’s history, the Cabinet of the Government of India cleared a document called the National Policy for Children 2030 which recognizes that every Indian child—irrespective of caste and class—had a right (as opposed to receiving token welfare) not only to development but protection and participation. The child in this national policy has been defined as a person below 18 years of age. The Indian Majority Act 1875, The Juvenile Justice Act 2000, the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2006 has the same age. Any existing legislation not specifying this age will have to be amended, for example the Child Marriage Act will need to be made gender-neutral since it says 21 for boys. More importantly, the Prohibition of Child Labour Act currently defines a child as someone below 14 years and when this is changed, it will go a long way in ensuring that children between 14 and 18 are not in physically and financially exploitative situations which tends to lead to their sexual abuse.