, Sept. 27 -- By Charudutta Panigrahi

In the corridors of South Asia's constitutional courts and parliamentary chambers, a quiet revolution is stirring-one that questions the very threshold of adulthood. As India's Supreme Court prepares to rule on whether the age of sexual consent should be lowered from 18 to 16, Nepal is simultaneously debating whether its youth should be granted the right to vote at 16. These parallel discussions, though distinct in legal terrain, converge on a deeper cultural and philosophical question: When does a young person become a citizen of their own body, their own choices, their own future?

India's current age of consent-18 years-is enshrined in the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2...