NATIONAL DATABASE ON SEXUAL OFFENDERS: A NECESSARY REFORM OR NOT?

Author – Surabhi Katyal

In February 2025, an 11-year-old hearing and speech impaired girl from Madhya Pradesh, was brutally raped and murdered by Ramesh Singh, who has a horrifying history of crimes against minors. He had earlier been imprisoned for raping a child, in a separate case sentenced to death for raping another (currently pending appeal), and now has been arrested and charge-sheeted for rape and murder of an 11-year-old child. Simultaneously, the Telangana Cyber Security Bureau’s Child Protection Unit arrested 15 men for repeatedly watching, saving, and sharing child sexual abuse material. Shockingly, the accused were previously linked to 34 earlier cases involving child abuse material. These incidents indicate that repeat sexual offenders continue to evade effective monitoring and remain active within the system.

In response to the growing threat of repeat sexual offences, the Government of India launched a National Database on Sexual Offenders (‘NDSO’) in September 2018, a national digital registry aimed at facilitating investigation and tracking of sexual offenders by State Police to prevent recidivism[1]. While the formulation of such a database is a significant step towards systemic criminal reform in India, concerns regarding its scope, governance and legal framework remain unsettled. In the absence of clear and operative legislative guideline or a defined framework, the potential of this powerful tool is jeopardized by ambiguity, misuse or in some cases, underutilization.

From Public Outrage to Policy Reform

The origin of such database is traced back to the nationwide outrage following the Nirbhaya Gang Rape Case in 2012, a crime that shook the conscience of the public and sparked a widespread call for stronger and better criminal mechanism to address sexual violence against women. In the following years, the data released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), revealed that a child is sexually abused every 15 minutes in India. Such alarming statistic, highlighting a distressing picture, led to an urgent need for an effective, systematic and technology-driven solution.

The NDSO was developed under the Inter-operable Criminal Justice System (ICJS)[2]. The data is sourced through the National Prisons Information Portal (e-Prisons)[3] compiled by NCRB, ensuring seamless sharing of information amongst the law enforcement agencies at the Centre and in the States/Union Territories. Presently, access to database is restricted to only law enforcement agencies and is not open to general public.[4]

Operational Framework

The database records the details at multiple stages of the criminal process, including individuals who have been arrested, charge-sheeted and convicted for the sexual offences (including rape, gang-rape, POCSO and eve teasing). It comprises identifying details of the offender, including, name, address, photograph, and fingerprint details. However, the database is designed in a way to ensure that individual’s privacy is not compromised.

The database enables the law enforcement agencies to immediately identify repeat offenders with prior criminal antecedents and, upon a request from an employer, may be used by the Police for background verification in sensitive employment sectors such as women’s hostels, schools, colleges, hospitals, CCI’s while also strengthening criminal investigations.[5]

Progress and Persistent Gaps

The NDSO has emerged as a massive repository with over 20.28 lakhs entries of sexual offenders. According to the Ministry of Home Affairs’ Annual Report (2019–2024), NDSO has witnessed substantial growth as the number of registered offenders has arisen from 7.4 lakh in 2019–2020[6] to over 18.52 lakh in 2023–2024[7], marking a 150% increase in just five years. However, despite its scale, the information on high-risk offenders is not made available to sensitive child-centric spaces such as schools, childcare institutions, and hospitals, thereby making it restrictive. Majority of sexual offence cases involve known persons, relatives, neighbours or acquaintance, which limits the preventive impact of registry that has been primarily designed with the concept of tracking strangers.

At present, the NDSO records the names of the sexual offenders but lacks an active monitoring mechanism to safeguard a child or woman from continued exposure to the abuser. For instance, there is currently no explicit disclosure protocol allowing the police to release and share relevant information with individuals or institutions responsible for child safety like a parent, teacher or a regular care-giver of the child, even in situations where a registered offender may pose a threat to the life, welfare or sexual safety of a specific child or children. For making the database more effective and efficient, there is an urgent need to establish a structured disclosure mechanism balancing the right to privacy with the right to protection of vulnerable members of the society.

As per the NCRB’s Crime in India Report of 2022, 4,15,855 cases of repeat offenders were recorded across all categories of crime under the Indian Penal Code (now Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita) and Special & Local Laws[8]. Similarly, data from the Tihar Central Jail, Delhi (2022), revealed that 32% of admissions were repeat offenders, including 17% among convicts and 33% among undertrials[9]. With such magnitude of repeat offending in India, NDSO plays a crucial role in narrowing the pool of suspects and strengthens the investigation. However, India’s justice delivery mechanism continues to face persistent challenges, from delays in trial disposal and low conviction rates [approximately 11% in POCSO cases (Section 4 and 6) and 14% in Rape cases], to overburdened investigative agencies and limited forensic capacities. With nearly two-thirds of prisoners awaiting trial, the NDSO alone cannot bridge these structural and operational gaps in the legal process system of the country.

Comparative Global Practice

Globally, the sexual offenders’ registries are regulated through legislative guidelines or processes balancing community protection with individual rights. In the United States, the landmark Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA)[10], passed in 1994 and strengthened by the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006, created a comprehensive legal framework mandating states, territories, and federally recognized tribes to maintain sex offender registries. The U.S. system links various regional registries into a national public website, allowing communities to access information about registered offenders[11]. 

Countries like United Kingdom, Canada, Australia (except Western Australia), Ireland, New Zealand, and France restrict access of offender registry to police, but with limited disclosures to parents or guardians, permitted in high-risk cases. Some also impose travel restrictions and notification requirements for registered sexual offenders.

Even though India’s NDSO is broader in coverage and scope i.e., individuals can be registered at the stage of arrest or charge-sheet, unlike other countries where only convictions trigger registration, however, it is more restrictive and narrower in terms of public access compared to global practices. NDSO does not empower parents, guardians or community institutions to verify if a known individual has a past record of sexual offences, making it ineffective in proactively preventing abuse within trusted networks.

The Way Forward

An analysis of NCRB data and repeat offence trends highlight that India requires a legally compliant sex offender management framework that strengthens child protection while upholding due process and the right to privacy under Article 21.

To enable the NDSO to realise its intended purpose, India must establish a comprehensive legislative framework clearly defining its scope, objectives, and governance structure. Subject to compliance with India’s recently formulated personal data protection laws, it should allow for a controlled, risk-based disclosure of information across all child protection functionaries, for instance Child Welfare Committee, Juvenile Justice Boards, FTSCs and Special POCSO Courts, in cases involving crimes against children, irrespective of arrest or conviction.

In offences against children, the application of the NDSO must be guided by the best interests of the child warranting stricter disclosure thresholds, enhanced monitoring of repeat offenders and mandatory background verifications. NDSO should be mandatorily used as a preventive risk-assessment tool for institution housing or regularly interacting with children, including schools, creches, sports academies or other child-care institutions. Periodic police verification and background check of all personnel, teaching or non-teaching, regular or contractual, should be conducted against the NDSO, and obtaining an NDSO clearance certificate from police may be made a prerequisite for the registration, recognition or licensing of such institutions.

The Government may also consider introducing a notification mechanism to inform minor victims or their guardians of an offender’s release or relocation or repeat offence, similar to the Victim Notification Program[12] in the United States.

Undoubtedly, the NDSO represents an important milestone in India’s fight against sexual violence. However, a clear legal framework or practice procedure defining its scope, safeguards and institutional responsibilities will enable leveraging this tool to its optimum and effective use.

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[1] https://www.pib.gov.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=183597&reg=3&lang=2

[2] https://www.mha.gov.in/en/divisionofmha/women-safety-division/cctns

[3] https://sansad.in/getFile/loksabhaquestions/annex/16/AS388.pdf?source=pqals

[4] https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1546835&reg=3&lang=2

[5] https://xn--i1b5bzbybhfo5c8b4bxh.xn--11b7cb3a6a.xn--h2brj9c/MHA1/Par2017/pdfs/par2024-pdfs/LS06082024/2420.pdf 

[6] https://www.mha.gov.in/sites/default/files/AnnualReport_19_20.pdf

[7] https://www.mha.gov.in/sites/default/files/AnnualReport_27122024.pdf

[8] Refer Chapter 19C of Crime in India NCRB Report 2022

[9] https://tiharprisons.delhi.gov.in/tiharprisons/recidivism-during-year-2022

[10] https://www.justice.gov/criminal/criminal-ceos/sex-offender-registration-and-notification-act-sorna

[11] https://www.nsopw.gov/all-registries

[12] https://www.justice.gov/criminal/criminal-vns