Government to launch registry of sex offenders next month

Government to launch registry of sex offenders next month

News:

1. India recently launched a National Database on Sexual Offenders (NDSO), and is ninth country to do so.

Important Facts:

2. The Criminal Law Act, 2018, provides for a National Registry of Sexual Offenders.

3. National Registry of Sexual Offender Database will have:

• Names and aliases, identifiers including PAN and Aadhaar, information of date of birth, criminal history, fingerprints and palm prints, and various other details of criminals.
• It will only have details of persons who are aged 18 or more.
• The database will include offenders convicted of rape, gang-rape, under the POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act, and of eve teasing.
• Database will have records from 2005.
• Database Will be maintained by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).
• Accessible only to law enforcement agencies.

4. How this centralized database will work?

• Whenever the details of a convict are entered into a prison database anywhere in the country, the name will be uploaded to the registry.

5. How it is maintained in other Countries:

• Megan’s Law in U.S – Allows access to database to the public and communities, except data on juveniles.
• UK, Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, limit data access only to law-enforcement agencies
• Everywhere only convicted persons are entered.

6. Criticism over maintaining the registry database:

• It does not have a deterrent impact on convicted person.
• It does not help people who have survived sexual violence.
• In India, it might not encourage people to report rapes or sexual offences because most of the convicted are known to victims as per the NCRB data.