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AI facial recognition to drones: MHA details Centre's plan to curb crimes against women
The ministry of Home affairs (MHA) was responding to a PIL filed by the Supreme Court Women Lawyers' Association over the rise in crimes against women.
Seven major railway stations will soon be equipped with Artificial Intelligence (AI) based facial recognition systems aimed at curbing crime against women, the Union government informed the Supreme Court in an affidavit.
The ministry of Home affairs (MHA) was responding to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by the Supreme Court Women Lawyers' Association over the rise in crimes against women. The apex court will hear the petition on Monday.
According to the MHA affidavit, the stations chosen for the project include Mumbai CST and New Delhi, Times of India reported. The Centre also told the court that the National Database on Sexual Offenders (NDSO) has been updated and the number of sexual offenders recorded in the database has crossed the 20-lakh mark. The MHA affidavit responded to serious concerns about rising crimes against women raised through the PIL, detailing the steps being taken to address the issue.
Centre's detailed plan to combat crimes against women
The ministry said that apart from AI-based facial recognition systems at railway stations, safe city projects have been implemented by local police and municipal corporations in eight cities. These cities are Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Lucknow.
The Centre's affidavit detailed these projects, which focus on improving safety infrastructure by installing CCTV cameras with facial recognition or automatic number plate recognition, smart lighting systems, and drones to monitor high-risk areas.
The MHA also pointed out that the NDSO data includes names, addresses, photographs, and fingerprint details of individuals involved in sexual offences like rape, gangrape, eve teasing, stalking, and child abuse. According to the ministry, the database currently has 20.28 lakh entries available for use by all police stations and law-enforcement agencies in the country through the Inter-Operable Criminal Justice System (ICJS).
The response from the petitioners
The petitioners, the Supreme Court Women Lawyers Association, said in a rejoinder to the MHA affidavit that additional measures are required to curb crimes against women, as the current steps listed by the ministry aren't making a ‘big difference’.
The rejoinder pointed out that the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data shows a big spike in crimes against women in recent years, from 58.8 lakhs in 2018 to 66.4 lakhs in 2022. The association also said that out of 22.66 lakh such cases pending trial in 2022, only 1.5 lakh were decided, and only 38,136 resulted in a conviction of the accused.
