New Women Safety Division to Deal with Rape Cases in India
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in the Government of India has set up a new Division to address issues of women safety comprehensively. This Division would deal with all aspects of women safety in coordination with relevant Ministries, Departments, and State Governments.
Ms. Punya Salila Srivastava, an AGMUT Cadre officer of 1993 batch, has been posted as Joint Secretary to head this Division.
The new Division will deal with the following subjects:
i. Crimes against women, SCs & STs.
ii. Crimes against children, elderly persons.
iii. Anti-trafficking Cell.
iv. Matters relating to prison legislation and prison reforms.
v. All schemes under NIRBHAYA fund.
vi. Crime and Criminal Tracking & Network System (CCTNS)
vii. National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB)
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In order to address offences against women particularly rape in a holistic and time bound manner, the Division would focus to enhance capacity of the existing administrative, investigative, prosecution, and judicial machinery, along with appropriate measures for rehabilitation of victims and bringing attitudinal changes in the society.
It was considered to create a National Mission for the safety of women, with participation of stakeholder Ministries / Departments, that would undertake specified actions in a time bound manner.
These included setting up of Special Fast Track Courts (FTCs), strengthening of forensic set up and building up of National Registry of Sexual Offenders, appointing additional Public Prosecutors, and providing appropriate medical and rehabilitation facilities to victims.
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Issues like sensitization of children through appropriate changes in school curriculum, a media campaign for raising awareness, checking proliferation of pornography materials and online content, etc. will also be addressed.
According to the government, an important aspect in investigation of rape cases concerns tracking of the accused persons and sharing of information with the concerned agencies in this regard.
National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) will maintain database and profile of sexual offenders at the national level and share it with the States / UTs on regular basis.
NCRB data will be used by the police for verification of antecedents for prospective employers and would from part of the CCTNS. The preparatory work for creating this database has commenced.
The government says the new Division in MHA will oversee the implementation of the above measures in a focused way.
Photo courtesy: Press Information Bureau
