India recently became the ninth country in the world to launch a National Database on Sexual Offenders (NDSO). It was rolled out by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) along with Ministry of Women and Child Development.

Features of NDSO :

• Contains details of around 4.5 lakh people convicted of various sexual offences: It will include names and aliases, address, photograph, identifiers including PAN and AADHAAR, criminal history, fingerprints and palm prints among others of the people convicted under charges of rape, Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) and of “eve-teasing”, from 2005 onwards.
• Maintained by National Crime Records Bureau (under Ministry of Home Affairs): It will also track regular updation of records by the State Police.
• Accessible only to Law Enforcement Agencies: for the purpose of investigation and monitoring cases of sexual offences and employee verification.
• Would not compromise any individual’s privacy: will have details of persons above 18 years of age and appeals against a conviction will have to be updated by state prisons. An accused can be tracked until an acquittal on appeal.
• Help keep track of released convicts who have moved from one place to another.

About online portal–cybercrime.gov.in

• Another portal – cybercrime.gov.in was launched by the government to receive complaints from citizens on objectionable online content related to child pornography, child sexual abuse material, and sexually explicit material such as rape and gang rape.