Context:

• The Rajasthan government has drafted a proposed legislation to implement measures for the prevention of crimes against women, especially girls.
• Parliamentary affairs minister Shanti Dhairwal while referring to the Public Safety Bill, blamed unrestricted obscene content on social media as the main reason for crimes such as rapes.

Key Points:

• The Parliamentary affairs minister called it a matter of serious concern and said the passage of the bill will make it necessary to install closed-circuit television cameras in public places.
• As per the minister, inhuman tendency is being developed among the youths and obscene content on social media are the main reason behind this. The content is being served in an unrestricted manner which promotes such incidents.
• The minister claimed that the government is very serious about the prevention of crimes against girls. To prevent these incidents, a provision has been made in Budget to run 500 vehicles in which panic buttons will be installed. Additionally, such buttons will also be installed in public places so that information is available as soon as any incident happens for action in time.
• It must be noted here that 5,793 cases of rape of girls were registered in the Rajasthan state from January 1, 2019 to January 31, 2022. Charge sheets have been submitted in 4,631 cases and 6628 accused have been arrested while 398 of them have been punished in 129 cases.
• As per the rules, it is mandatory to submit charge sheets in two months in Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act cases. However, the Parliamentary affairs minister said they are submitted within 15 days in the Rajasthan state. He said there have been cases where POCSO courts pronounced judgments in 26 days and a month and a charge sheet was filed within nine days.

By: A D Singh