In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tor Dr Var­ma Deyals­ingh sug­gest­ed chem­i­cal cas­tra­tion of pae­dophiles to be con­sid­ered as a Spe­cial Se­lect Com­mit­tee (SSC) con­vened to dis­cuss the Sex­u­al Of­fences Act (Amend­ment) Bill on Tuesday.

Dur­ing the dis­cus­sions, Deyals­ingh said chem­i­cal cas­tra­tions were a vi­able med­ical op­tion when treat­ing with sex of­fend­ers such as pae­dophiles.

“If you’re look­ing at cas­tra­tions and pae­dophil­ia and cer­tain in­di­vid­u­als we can give an in­jec­tion. It cuts that sex dri­ve. It’s an an­ti-testos­terone so they can go back out - not in their homes - but else­where if it’s child mo­lesta­tion that oc­curs in their home and still be able to pro­vide the earn­ings for that home as a bread­win­ner.”

He cit­ed sev­er­al states in the US em­ploy such a prac­tice such as Cal­i­for­nia and Flori­da.

He said it is some­thing to be con­sid­ered as the na­tion’s pris­ons are cur­rent­ly over­crowd­ed and the method can re­duce the re­cidi­vism rate down from 60 per cent to five per cent.

His com­ments came as the com­mit­tee was dis­cussing ways of keep­ing track of sex of­fend­ers such as stamp­ing their pass­ports or even their dri­ver’s li­cense.

While the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al Faris Al Rawi did not en­gage in the con­ver­sa­tion, he not­ed that some African coun­tries were re­ceiv­ing in­tense crit­i­cism for em­ploy­ing such dra­con­ian mea­sures to treat with sex of­fend­ers.

The sit­ting was held to dis­cuss con­cerns by stake­hold­ers on the Sex­u­al Of­fences Act (Amend­ment) Bill. The com­mit­tee com­prised sev­er­al sen­a­tors across the spec­trum and was chaired by Sen­a­tor Clarence Ramb­harat.

Yes­ter­day’s stake­hold­ers con­sist­ed of rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty, Counter Traf­fick­ing Unit, and Im­mi­gra­tion Di­vi­sion.

About the pro­ce­dure

Chem­i­cal cas­tra­tion, un­like sur­gi­cal cas­tra­tion, which in­volves the re­moval of the go­nads through an in­ci­sion, us­es anaphro­disi­ac drugs to re­duce li­bido and sex­u­al ac­tiv­i­ty.

It does not re­quire the re­moval of any gen­i­talia nor is it con­sid­ered ster­il­i­sa­tion as gen­er­al­ly, dis­con­tin­u­ing treat­ment can re­duce the ef­fects. How­ev­er, it has been known to change the body's nor­mal chem­i­cal func­tions.

Many coun­tries use this form of cas­tra­tion of pun­ish­ment for rapists and pae­dophiles in ex­change for re­duced sen­tences.

While it is pri­mar­i­ly fo­cused on men, women can al­so be chem­i­cal­ly cas­trat­ed.