Govt listing sex offenders in a comprehensive digital database: Irani

In a bid to ensure women and child safety and security in the country, Union Women and Child Development (WCD) Minister Smriti Irani on Tuesday said the government has begun listing all sexual offenders in a digital database.

"Through the database, all the sexual offenders can be found across the country so that when institutions such as schools, colleges or universities want to do a background check on people who are to be hired within these institutions," the Minister said during the second edition of Facebook's South Asia Safety Summit here.

She also said that every district in the country will have an operational One Stop Centre (OSCs) to help women.

The OSCs aim to facilitate integrated services for violence-affected women, like police assistance, medical aid, psycho-social counselling, legal aid/counselling and temporary stay for five days under one roof.

"Every district of our country will have an operational One Stop Centre to service the needs of women in their locality," said Irani.

Given the challenges women face with regards to safety and security, Irani thanked the Home Ministry for partnering with WCD ministry.

"We had put forth a proposal to the government agencies to ensure that we have anti-trafficking units to help better protect women and children across the country," the Minister revealed.

She said that the Home Ministry has launched a cybercrime reporting panel which provides citizens with an easy way of complaining against objectionable content online.