The government on Thursday launched the National Database on Sexual Offenders (NDSO), accessible only to law enforcement agencies, to assist them in effectively tracking and investigating cases of sexual offences.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh, who unveiled the NDSO portal, launched another portal to check online content related to child pornography. The two portals will help investigating agencies in cases where criminals migrate to other states after committing crime.
The National Database on Sexual Offenders will be a central database of “sexual offenders” in the country, to be maintained by the National Crime Records Bureau for regular monitoring and tracking by the state police. The database is accessible only to the law enforcement agencies for investigation and monitoring purpose.
The database will include offenders convicted under charges of rape, gang rape, POCSO and eve teasing. At present the database contains 4.4 lakh entries.
The state police have been requested to regularly update the database from 2005 onwards. The database includes name, address, photograph and fingerprint details for each entry. However, the database will not compromise any individual’s privacy.
The other portal “cybercrime. gov.in” will receive complaints from citizens on objectionable online content related to child pornography, child sexual abuse material, sexually explicit material such as rape and gang rape.
The Cyber Crime Prevention Against Women and Children portal is convenient and user friendly that will enable complainants in reporting cases without disclosing their identity.