Govt to create database of sex offenders: Maneka

Mohit Khanna

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Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 1

The NRIs visiting the country for matrimony must get their marriages registered within 48 hours otherwise their visas will be cancelled or their passports may also be confiscated. This was stated by Maneka Gandhi, Union Minister for Women and Child Development.

She was here to lay the foundation stone for Sakhi-Suraksha Advance Forensic DNA Laboratory, which is being developed under the Nirbhaya Fund. She said: “An order in this regard has been sent to all registrars across the country to make sure that the NRI marriages are registered. The registrars have to send the information to the ministry so that a database of the NRI marriages can be prepared.”

“If a woman suspects that her NRI husband can desert her, she can send an email at min-wcd@nic.in. Recently, such complaints were received against six NRIs who were then stopped from flying abroad. A committee consisting of Joint Secretaries from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD Ministry) and Home Ministry and two lawyers has been constituted to decided if the NRI should leave or stay,” said the minister.

Forensic labs fail purpose

The forensic science laboratories across the country were receiving nearly 16,000 samples of rape victims annually, but managed to produce results in merely 3,000 cases in a year. There was a backlog of 13,000 cases due to which victims couldn’t be given justice, said the minister.

“I was shocked to learn that the Central Forensic Sciences Laboratory in Chandigarh has a capacity of processing merely 165 results on annual basis. SK Jain, Director of CSFL, has floated a tender for the machinery and the WCD Ministry will help with the man power. With the setting up of new laboratory, the capacity of producing results will increase up to 2,000,” said Maneka Gandhi.

Kits will contain protocol

Maneka Gandhi said her ministry would provide all police stations across the country with rape kits. The kits will contain a list of protocols to be followed in the rape investigation cases.

“If you do not have enough evidence, you do not have a case. We are going to float a tender and in July, every police station in the country will have a kit,” said she.

She said 193 ‘one-stop centres’, consisting of lawyer, doctor, nurse and psychologist, have been set up across the country. Every district in the country would have such a centre by the end of their year, added the Minister.

Nursing homes may lose licence

The minister said the government had taken a stern view of the increasing caesarean cases across the country. “Over 70 per cent of women in the country had to undergo C-section. We had pressed the Health Ministry to formulate a policy and now it has written to every hospital. If found violating rules, the licence of the hospital will be cancelled,” said the minister.

Database of sex offenders

The minister said soon the government would start compiling the data of sex offenders in the country. It would be shared with the police and would help the law enforcement agencies to keep a track of such persons.

“It has been noticed that child sex offenders keep changing locations. The compiling of the data will help trace them,” said Maneka Gandhi.

Panic button on mobile phones

She said with the efforts of her ministry, the mobile companies have created software of panic button on phones. The trial run of the panic button was currently under way in Uttar Pradesh. Women in any kind of emergency situation could avail themselves of the panic button facility. Once pressed, the police would trace the location of the victim, said the minister.