India to have sexual offenders' data base to monitor crimes
For the first time, India will have a sexual offenders' database to monitor and track those convicted of such crimes, joining eight countries which have such information including personal details and DNA of offenders.
The government's National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) will maintain the database of profiles of sexual offenders and the data will be regularly shared with Indian states for tracking, monitoring and investigation, including verification of antecedents by police.
The decision to create the database was approved at a meeting of the Indian cabinet on Saturday when an ordinance was approved for amending laws to award death sentence to child rapists.
While such a database of sex offenders in the US is public, in the other countries like Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, Trinidad and Tobago and Britain such data of convicted sex offenders is meant only for use of law enforcement authorities.
It is not clear if the Indian database will be made public or not.
However, the decision may spark controversies as many rights groups such as the Human Right Watch have spoken out against the sex offenders registry, claiming that it negates the concept of rehabilitation and perpetuates social stigma.
"Once such a registry comes into being, I am concerned that it might lead to people not reporting rapes or sexual offences because most of them are by people known to the victims. Also, once you are on the registry, it will mean no jobs, no chance to rehabilitate. Across the world, such registries have failed to act as a deterrent," said Bharti Ali of HAQ Centre for Child Rights.
India is witnessing an outrage over rape incidents of minors.
Facing the outrage, India on Saturday approved death penalty for rapists of minors.
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