India Today – October 08, 2018

10 INDIA TODAY OCTOBER 8, 2018

I

ndia has now become the ninth country to introduce
a ‘sex offender registry’ after the US, UK, Canada,
Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Ireland and
Trinidad & Tobago. The National Crime Records
Bureau (NCRB) now maintains a database containing
names, addresses, fingerprints, DNA samples and Aadhaar
numbers of persons convicted of sexual offences. It’s not
yet clear how the NCRB plans to update information
on offenders and whether the information will remain
available only to law enforcement agencies. Considering
the registry has been pitched as a public safety measure and
the substantial costs of maintaining it, besides its possible
impact on former offenders, it’s pertinent to examine the
potential value of such a register.
At first glance, a registry that helps law enforcement
keep track of offenders, particularly those convicted of
sexual offences—and identify and apprehend re-offenders—
seems welcome. The database could help police verification
of sex crime histories, though this is already possible in
some measure with the Crime and Criminal Tracking
Network and Systems (CCTNS), initiated in 2009, which
inter-links the records (arrests, FIRs, chargesheets etc.) of
all police stations in the country.
A registry of this nature seems to assume that a person
charged with a sexual offence will possibly repeat the crime

and is, therefore, a threat. However, the NCRB’s ‘Crime

in India’ reports do not track recidivism specifically for

those convicted of sexual offences. Thus, the risk posed by

convicted sex offenders is unknown. Also, for the registry to

be effective, it is crucial to first secure convictions. Whereas,

it is estimated that well over 90 per cent of sexual assaults

in the country go unreported. Those sex crimes that do get

reported and enter the criminal justice system are plagued

by inordinate delays (NCRB 2016 puts the pendency of

rape cases at 88 per cent), low conviction (26 per cent) and

victims often turn ‘hostile’ in courts.

These figures show that most sexual offences in the

country go simply unnoticed and a majority of offenders

face no action. The push for sex-offender registries also

advances the narrative of ‘stranger danger’, even though

we know from available figures that 94 per cent of rape

victims are known to their offenders (NCRB 2016).

These offenders are often neighbours, relatives, teachers,

partners—and usually not unknown figures lurking in the

shadows. With poor conviction rates, delayed sentences

and an undocumented risk of re-offending, it is unclear

how effective a sex-offender registry will be in checking sex

crimes or in investigating fresh offences.

The 2017 Sunil Rastogi case in New Delhi, which raised

the pitch of the demand for a sex-offender registry, illustrates

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Illustration by TANMOY CHAKRABORTY

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