Centre releases National Registry of Sexual Offenders

In an effort to curb crimes against women, the centre released the National Registry of Sexual Offenders on Thursday. The Indian registry will include names, photographs, residential address, fingerprints, DNA samples, and PAN and Aadhaar numbers, of convicted sexual offenders.

The advocates of such a database believe it will have a deterrent effect, but similar records have made virtually no difference in the handful of countries where they exist.

National Crime Records Bureau, under the Ministry of Home Affairs will maintain the database. It will be made available to law enforcement agencies for various purposes, including investigation and employee verification,” a senior government official said.


Unlike in the US, the details of such a registry will only be available to law enforcement agencies in India. The cases will have profiles of first-time and repeat offenders.

Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandh was at the forefront of such a demand.

India has witnessed increased incidents of brutal assault on women and children, since the start of this year.

Before India, UK, US, Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa and Trinidad & Tobago have maintained the data record.

According to the NCRB data, at least 38,947 rape cases were registered in 2016, against 34,651 in 2015. Overall crimes against women rose from 3,29,243 in 2015 to 3,38,954 in 2016.