CENTRE LAUNCHES TWO PORTALS
NEW DELHI: Amid international reports claiming India as the most dangerous country in terms of sexual violence against women, the Central Government on Thursday took important measures to prevent sexual offences against women. The Union Home Ministry launched two portals —Cyber Crime Prevention against Women and Children (CCPWC) portal to check objectionable online content and National Database on Sexual Offenders (NDSO) portal to aid in monitoring and investigation of sexual crimes -- to strengthen women safety.
Citizens will be able to register complaints on portal “cybercrime.gov.in” about objectionable online content related to child pornography, child sexual abuse material and sexually explicit material.
Earlier this month, Thomson Reuters Foundation’s 2018 survey placed India at 131st out of 152 countries in the Georgetown Institute’s global ranking of women’s inclusion and well-being. Even, the National Crime Records Bureau’s data mentioned that the number of crimes against women stood at 3,38,954 at present, including 38,947 rapes (till 2016)— an increase from 3,09,546 in 2013. Besides, several brutal gangrape and murder cases in recent years have shocked the nation of 1.3 billion.
While addressing the programme, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said the govern- ment has taken several measures to check crimes against Women and Children, including the provision of stringent punishment and creation of modern forensic facilities to improve investigation.
However, the minister also admitted that the field level challenges have to be overcome by the police at the ground level to ensure speedy justice to victims. He urged the police forces to fully utilise the potential of the two portals and update the database regularly for greater effectiveness.
Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi, who was also present on the occasion, underlined the need for the provision of forensic kits at police stations for quick investigation of sexual crimes. Union Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba was also present during the launch of the portals.
The database is accessible only to the law enforcement agencies for investigation and monitoring purposes. It will include offenders convicted under charges of rape, gang rape, POCSO and eve teasing. At present, the database contains 4.4 lakh entries.
“Ministry of Home Affairs has already released a grant of Rs 94.5 crore to States/uts for establishing cyber forensiccum-training laboratories to strengthen cybercrime investigation and conduct training programmes to enhance capabilities of Police officers, public prosecutors and judicial officers,” a government statement said.