Firstpost Editor's Picks: POCSO amendments, Khandaani Shafakhana review, Team India's World T20 preparations; today's must-read stories

POCSO amendments propose but politicians dispose; why do they protect rapist-killers? Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi was recently told that 24,212 child-rape cases have been filed in the last six months alone (January to June 2019). That’s an average of 134 children being sexually abused by adults in India every single day. That is five children being raped per hour in India. To be noted: these are only the cases for which FIRs have been filed. Politicians, are you paying attention to this crisis? Revoking Article 35A will only deepen politics of communal paranoia in Jammu and Kashmir Many in and outside Kashmir believe Prime Minister Narendra Modi will announce on this Independence Day his intent to dismantle Article 35A of the Constitution. For ideological opponents of Article 35A, this moment is long overdue: Xinjiang-like demographic transformation, they believe, will collapse the religious-ethnic basis of the decades-old Islamist insurgency in Kashmir. In turn, the religious right-wing in Kashmir sees this as the time to herald an apocalyptic war for communal survival. _Khandaani Shafakhana_ movie review: Sonakshi Sinha is handed a lifeless sexual health clinic The promise of this subject is multi-pronged — the agony of men, women and couples with sexual problems in a conservative community, the social squeamishness around sex, the restrictions placed on women, and a general unawareness about Unani medicine among a modern urban audience. If these had been tackled with depth, there is so much that Khandaani Shafakhana could have offered. India vs West Indies: Chance for fresh faces and comeback men to impress as Virat Kohli and Co kick-off World T20 preparations For India, the focus now shifts to Tests and T20s. While the Test team is more or less set, it’s the T20 code that India need to crack now. It also breeds excitement, though. The preparation for the World T20 begins with the three-match series against West Indies in the USA and the Caribbean (two T20Is in Florida and one in Guyana). It’s a fresh start; the rift rumours have been swatted away and as India look to regroup after the World Cup, it’s a chance for the fresh faces, comeback men and youngsters to impress in the first audition ahead of the World T20. In Tamil Nadu, anatomy of a caste crime: Families devastated by honour killings speak of the scourge Since 2014, 500 individuals — mostly women — have been victims of honour killings across India. But this is a conservative estimate, say activists, who believe that many such killings are covered up to seem like suicide, or simply not reported. “Most of these murders are usually not even registered by the police as caste-based crimes, and very few come to court,” says A Kathir @ Vincent Raj, director of Evidence, an NGO dedicated to the cause of Dalit rights, which works closely with survivors of honour killings in Tamil Nadu.