Monday, November 12, 2018

SEP 18 SS National Database on Sexual Offenders

  NATI ON AL D ATAB ASE ON SE XUAL O FFE N DE R S

Why in News?

India recently became the ninth country in the world to launch a National Database on Sexual Offenders (NDSO).
It was rolled out by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) along with Women and Child Development (WCD) Ministry.

Background

•   Proposal to setup a national registry was mooted by the government after 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape case.
•   The Criminal Law Act, 2018 provides for a national registry of sexual offenders.
•   Need for NDSO: There has been an overall rise in crimes against women from 3,29,243 in 2015 to 3,38,954 in
2016 with a 12% rise in cases of rape. It will help enabling justice and monitor an offender’s future behavior.


Features of NDSO

Contains   details   of   around   4.5   lakh   people convicted of various sexual offences:  It will include names and aliases, address, photograph, identifiers including PAN and AADHAAR, criminal history, fingerprints and palm prints among others of the people convicted under charges of rape, gang-rape, Protection  of Children  from  Sexual  Offences  Act (POCSO) and of “eve-teasing”, from 2005 onwards.
Maintained  by  National  Crime  Records  Bureau (NCRB): It will also track regular updation of records by the State Police.
•   Accessible only to Law Enforcement Agencies: for


About online portal–cybercrime.gov.in:
Another portal – cybercrime.gov.in was launched by the government to receive complaints from citizens on objectionable  online  content related  to  child pornography, child sexual abuse material, and sexually explicit material such as rape and gang rape.
Cases in other countries:
Similar databases of sexual offenders are maintained in the USA, UK, Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa and Trinidad and Tobago.
In  each  of  these  countries  the  details  of  only convicted persons are entered and only USA makes the registry available to the public and communities.

the purpose of investigation and monitoring cases of sexual offences and employee verification.
Would not compromise any individual’s privacy: will have details of persons above 18 years of age and appeals against a conviction will have to be updated by state prisons. An accused can be tracked until an acquittal on appeal.

75                                                                                         www.visionias.in                                                                       ©Vision IAS

Help keep track of released convicts who have moved from one place to another: address concerns over sexual  assaults  in  sensitive  cases  like Children’s  shelter  homes  and  increasing  incidents  of NRI  grooms abandoning their brides.

Criticisms of the move
Neither serves as a deterrent nor help victims of sexual violence: In some western countries, there have been demands for a review of the decision of maintaining a registry due to this reason. Also, the data is already available in the CCTNS network and through NCRB annual crime reports, but it didn’t act as a deterrent.
In India most sex crimes are committed by a person known to the victim: As NCRB data of 2015 states that out of 34,651 reported rape cases, 33,098 were committed by people known to the victim, these victims might become reluctant to report the cases of sexual violence.
•   Details of the convict are not made open to public: thus, how this will affect general public is not known.
•   May create a stigma against the accused: there is a possibility that this registry may tarnish a person’s life
forever even if he is reformed after serving his legal sentence.

Way Forward
Though this database could be a considerable step in tackling crime against women, its real utility would depend on how efficiently it is implemented and coordinated between various police agencies.
Simultaneously we urgently require police reforms to be implemented in spirit, breaking the unholy nexus between police and politicians.
We need to move towards an inquisitorial criminal justice system from present adversarial system to make it victim centric. Also, Fast Track Courts must be introduced especially for cases of sexual violence to have an effective deterrence.
Stringent punishment should also be introduced  for those filing false complaints, to make the database effective.

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