New Delhi, Aug. 14: Speakers at an event to take stock of the overall rights situation in the country called for decriminalising gay sex, as the conclave ended yesterday with a raft of suggestions that also covered women's rights and employment of children.

Some speakers at the two-day national consultation, organised by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), wanted a uniform age ceiling for treating minors as offenders and restricting their employment in any hazardous industry.

The commission had earlier completed six regional consultations covering all the states. A report, based on these wide consultations, will be prepared and submitted to the UN Human Rights Council.

Senior advocate Anand Grover, one of the key speakers at the event, called for scrapping the penal code's Section 377, which prohibits unnaturalsex, arguing that it was a draconian provision.

Grover, who has been arguing in the Supreme Court for an NGO that wants this provision done away with, said if it wasn't scrapped the IPC section could be used to harass consenting adults.

On offences committed by minors, it was pointed out that those below 18 cannot be prosecuted under the penal code or any other penal provision in regular courts. Only for heinous crimes like murder or rape can a minor be tried in regular courts after the Juvenile Justice Board determines the severity of the offence.

It was also pointed out that Indian labour laws permitted children to be employed in non-hazardous industries once they cross 14. The speakers wanted the age for employing children only after they crossed 16, even in non-hazardous industries.

Among the other suggestions that came up at the event were:

• A uniform civil code from the women's perspective to enable them to have equal rights, irrespective of their religion;

• Clean potable water to all;

• Increasing expenditure on health up to 3 per cent of the GDP;

• Reviewing the National Food Security Act to make it more effective and inclusive;

• Amending rules under the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007, to ensure that all disputes are settled within 90 days;

• Each tribal community should be brought to the centre of socio-economic development;

• Clarification on the plan of action for providing 25 million houses by 2022;

• Time-bound implementation of the Right to Education Act with regulations to check private schools and bring the new education policy within the framework of the RTE Act;

• Replicating "Operation Smile" and "Operation Muskan" - two schemes launched by the Union home ministry to find missing children - in different parts of the country;

• Strengthening the criminal justice system to clear pending cases;

• Anti-human trafficking units in all districts; and

• Working on the portability of the identity-certifying mechanism to ensure that migrant labourers are not excluded from the benefits of welfare schemes.

Apart from former Chief Justice of India H.L. Dattu, the NHRC chairperson, and key members of the panel, the participants included representatives from the Union ministries of external affairs, home, women and child development, and health and family welfare, the Niti Aayog and NGOs.