MHA has set up a new ‘Women Safety Division’ on May 28, 2018 to strengthen measures for safety of women in the country and instill greater sense of security in them through speedy and effective administration of justice in a holistic manner and by providing a safer environment for women. The new Division is responsible for policy formulation, planning, coordinating, formulating and implementing projects/schemes to assist States/Union Territories to achieve this objective, as also prison reforms, anti human trafficking and related subjects. This, inter-alia, includes increased use of IT and technology in criminal justice system and enabling a supportive eco-system for forensic sciences and crime & criminal records.
The subject matters dealt in the Women Safety Division include:
- Coordination and implementation of projects being undertaken in MHA for enhancement of safety of women in the country (Emergency Response Support System, Safe City projects etc);
- IT interventions for increasing efficiency in delivery of criminal justice (Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems-CCTNS, Inter-operable Criminal Justice System-ICJS, Investigations Tracking System for Sexual Offences-ITSSO, National Database on Sexual Offenders-NDSO etc);
- All matters relating to Directorate of Forensic Science Services and its affiliated Central Forensic Science Laboratories, Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narayan National Institute of Criminology and Forensic Sciences and administrative and financial matters relating to Central Forensic Science Laboratory of CBI;
- Crime statistics;
- All matters relating to National Crime Records Bureau;
- Crimes against women and children, members of scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, elderly persons and other vulnerable groups, but excluding crime against minorities;
- All matters relating to Trafficking in Persons and Smuggling of Migrants; and the two protocols of United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNCTOC) namely, the ‘Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children’ and the ‘Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air’, excluding legislative, rehabilitation, welfare and other promotional aspects specifically dealt with by the Ministry of Women and Child Development;
- All matters relating to Prison Reforms, Correctional Administration, Prisons/Prisoners legislation, Identification of Prisoners/Convicted and Suspected persons legislation, Repatriation of Prisoners Act, 2003, Transfer of Sentenced Persons agreements and matters related thereto.
- Poisons Act, 1919.
