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Sexual Offender Registry

• • The case of Delhi-based tailor Sunil Rastogi is a classic example of this. Sunil was charged with assaulting over 100 minor girls despite having served an earlier sentence for the rape of a minor girl. A registry in such cases can act as a deterrent.
  • India has one-fifth of the world’s child population and unfortunately, also has the largest number of child sexual abuse cases registered in the world. According to government figures released in December 2017, a child is sexually abused every 15 minutes!
  • The latest National Crime Records Bureau data shows there has been a 12% rise in rapes between 2015 and 2016, and that the majority of offenders are known to the victim.
  • In a situation like this, the sex offenders’ list can definitely help the investigation and monitoring process as well as work as a deterrent.
  • There have been instances in the past where convicted sexual offenders have committed the crime multiple times only because there was no central registry maintaining records
  • India, the second most populous country in the world, after China, reports an extremely large number of child and sexual abuse cases in the world.
  • Earlier this year, India was ranked the most dangerous country out of the
  • world’s 10 worst countries for women, behind Afghanistan, Pakistan and Somalia, according to a poll conducted by the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
  • In 2011, the same poll had placed India at fourth place.
  • The first-of-its-kind national sex offenders’ registry launched –has names and details of some 4.4 lakh people convicted for various sexual offences across the country
  • The database is for those convicted for sexual offences 2005 onwards. It includes name, address, photograph and fingerprint details of the convict.
  • India became the ninth country in the world to have a National Database on Sexual Offenders (NDSO), accessible only to law enforcement agencies for the purpose of “investigation and monitoring”.
  • The proposal to set up a registry was mooted. after the 2012 Nirbhaya gangrape case in New Delhi.
  • The database will be maintained by the National Crime Records Bureau, that will also track whether the State police were updating the records on time.
  • The data will be maintained by the National Crime Records Bureau and will only be accessible to law enforcement agencies, not to the public.
  • The database will include offenders convicted under charges of rape, gang rape, Protection of Children from Sexual Offenders Act (POCSO) and eve teasing.
  • The offenders will be classified by criminal history to ascertain if they “pose a serious danger to the community”.
  • 15 years in the case of those classified as posing “low danger”; -25 years for those presenting “moderate danger”; -and through the lifetime for “habitual offenders, violent criminals, convicts in gang rapes and custodial rapes”.

• • First, what will be the process of categorising offenders? For example, can the recent rape of a minor in Kathua, Jammu and Kashmir, be termed more heinous than the rape that has been reported at a school in Dehradun, or vice versa?
  • Second, while in a digital age it is reasonable to expect the use of technology in crime detection and investigation, despite a promise to not to compromise the privacy of any individual, there will be legitimate concerns about the misuse of data. This concern has been tackled partly by allowing access to the registry only to law enforcement agencies.
  • Third, there is a possibility that this registry may tarnish a person’s life forever even if he is reformed after serving his legal sentence.
  • There was no clarity on the extent to which the state plans to use this data. PTI had reported in the past that it will be “regularly shared with states and Union Territories for tracking, monitoring and investigation, including verification of antecedents by police.”

• • in countries that maintain such a database, sexual offenders are typically required to periodically check in with the local police, informing them about their place of residence, recent whereabouts, place of employment, and provide details of their physical description.
  • This could seriously impede the process of rehabilitation and recovery of criminals and also leave scope for lifetime of harassment by local authorities, even after an accused has served his or her sentence
  • Another issue lies in the definition of the term sexual offences.The draft guidelines reportedly include rape, voyeurism, stalking and aggravated sexual assault. However, the Protection of Children From Sexual Offences Act, 2012 criminalises consensual sexual intercourse with minors and between minors.
  • This could mean that a person could possibly face the wrath of objecting parents and live with the consequences of being on the register for a lifetime for having a consensual sexual relationship.
  • Besides, the government may have plans to hand out contracts to private entities for technical support and maintenance of the database.

• This puts the privacy of convicted, or even accused individuals at a greater risk.
• Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi had also urged the government to push for a registry of sexual offenders, propagating the ‘name and shame’ approach in dealing with sexual predators. “Name and shame them. Sexual offenders should not be accepted as employees anywhere,

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