Details of 5 lakh sex offenders in database

New Delhi: A list with details of more than 5 lakh sex offenders, who have been convicted for crimes against women, has now been added to a database which the law enforcement agencies can access to help crack sex crimes across the country.

The national registry of sex offenders, which is maintained by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), has a database of offenders convicted under charges of rape, gang rape, POCSO, and eve teasing. The home ministry officials said that so far details of more than 5 lakh sex offenders has been added to the data base.

All relevant details like photos and IDs available in the registry will only be accessible to law enforcement agencies and will help them in tracking and investigating cases of sexual offences. The database includes details like name, address, photograph, and fingerprint details for each entry but there will be no compromise on privacy.

All these records have been sourced from the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS), which is a programme of the home ministry to maintain a database of crimes and criminals.

India is among those few countries like the USA and United Kingdom that maintains a sex offender list.

The United States is the only country where the sex offender registry is available to the public. As per the latest NCRB data, as many as 38,947 rape cases were registered in 2016 as against 34,651 in 2015. Overall crimes against women rose from 3,29,243 in 2015 to 3,38,954 in 2016.

A majority of cases in 2016, categorised as crimes against women, were reported under cruelty by husband or his relatives (32.6 per cent), followed by assault on women with intent to outrage her modesty (25 per cent), kidnapping and abduction of women (19 per cent), and rape (11.5 per cent).

Madhya Pradesh reported the highest number of rape cases (4,882) in 2016 followed by Uttar Pradesh (4,816) and Maharashtra (4,189).