Gujarat registered 37 cases under Section 377 in 2016

Gujarat registered 37 cases under Section 377 (unnatural sex) during 2016, said a data released by National Crime Records Bureau.

The figure for crimes against children under the Section was 20 cases, while those against women was 2 for the same year.

Chandubhai Patel, of Chuval Gram Seva Trust, who worked with homosexuals in creating awareness about safe sex said hardly 0.1% of the cases being registered are against homosexuality per se.

"Contrary to belief, when a crime of Section 377 is registered it is often a repercussion of some other crime that has taken place. I have come across very few incidents where people were booked just for having sex consensually. It would often be the case that some other crime happened and the homosexual relationship was revealed and it got added as one of the sections," said Patel.

It should be noted that prior to the judgment, Section 377 criminalised any voluntary sex against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal.

This means the cases of complaints of forced anal and oral sex between men and women were also listed under this Section.

Another member of the gay community said many times why such cases happen is also because many transgenders end up working as prostitutes to earn a living. "Prostitution is a crime and often this Section gets added in it if the 'prostitute' is a transgender," said the member who did not wish to be named.

A cop in the city police department said many cases under Section 377 often include heterosexuals and not homosexuals.

"It is often the case that complaints under Section 377 involve women who complain about husbands or boyfriends forcing them to have sex in a particular way that is not natural. I don't think the cases that get registered are against consensual same-sex between two individuals," said the cop who did not wish to be identified.