NCRB Invites Tender To Prepare Sexual Offender Database Like In US, Know What It Is

The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) has invited tenders to constitute a National Registry of Sexual Offenders, a database to track both adults and juveniles convicted of sex crimes.

This news comes at a time when the BJP-led Central government has already passed an ordinance to award death penalty to child rapists and has asked NCRB to formulate a list of sex offenders.

According to the request for proposal (RFP), a country-wide database containing records of “arrested and charge-sheeted” as well as “convicted” sexual offenders, will have to be prepared, reported The Print.

“The information on arrested and charge-sheeted offenders shall be available only for law enforcement agencies, whereas the data for convicted offenders shall be made accessible to public as well,” it says. This list will be subdivided into parts- adult’s list and the juvenile’s list. The information could be searched using parameters such as state, district, police station, modus operandi, among others.

What are the kind of crimes and who are the stakeholders?

The RFP states that offenders, who are not convicted, would also be a part of the list. Sex crimes are not defined under any particular law structure. “Offences which are sexual in nature and committed against women or children are to be incorporated in this database,” RFP says while broadly describing sexual crimes.

The will be incorporated in two phases. While Phase I would include cases of rape and certain sections of the POCSO Act, Phase II would cover sections of the Information Technology (IT) Act, all of POCSO, Immoral Traffic Prevention Act and SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act, reported The Print.

NCRB would be the primary stakeholder. Citizens would be able to retrieve and view the records on basis of region, police station and nature of the crime. Other stakeholders would include state police, public and other agencies. Police are supposed to “ensure that the SOPs for entering data in case of sexual offences are followed properly and the data gets, synced/entered into the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems (CCTNS).”

The Logical Indian Take

India would be the second country after the US to make such a database public. But there are certain loopholes in this idea. Most of the accused in rapes and child abuse cases in India are known to the victim. In a situation like this, a database would hold little importance. It also ensures that a person’s name would never cease to exist in the database. Again, many false sexual harassment cases are also filed in India. A person’s name would appear on the list even before he/she is convicted. Thus, a person, with a false case against them, would be registered in the database forever.