Heena Sharma Blog

After a series of high-profile rape cases , India launched a national register of sex offenders for the first time in September. Those convicted of sex crimes – including rape and sexual harassment – will now be added to a database, access to which will be given to law enforcement agencies, but not the public. The aim of the new register is to reduce the number of crimes committed against women in India. But discouraging offences through a register is just part of the answer to improving women’s safety. Cultural attitudes toward sexual assault also need to change, as these can affect whether crimes are reported. Evidence from other countries with similar sex offender registers is mixed, finding that they don’t seem to have an effect on re-offending rates – though they may stop sex crimes from being committed by people not already on the register. Researchers suggest that one of the reasons for this is the potential cost to offenders of being added to the register, such as

After public transportation, local markets, private tuitions or roads leading to school were regarded as most unsafe among young girls Current Affairs News : India’s richest girls and young women, aged 11 to 18, felt the least safe among all income groups in public spaces, according to a new report that explored safety perceptions among adolescent girls. Across urban (47%) and rural (40%) areas, young girls reported feeling more susceptible to molestation or abuse while using public transport, said the report, Wings 2018: World Of India’s Girls, released by Save The Children in India, an international non-governmental organisation. This finding was particularly true for girls from higher income groups (53%), belonging to the other backward classes (OBC) and general castes (45%), according to the study Girls from medium and small towns (51%) reported feeling more unsafe than those in large cities (44%), small villages (42%) and large villages (39%). “A possible reaso

The Swedish Academy has been facing a crisis after reports emerged of 18 women claiming to have been raped, sexually assaulted or harassed by an Academy member’s husband International News  : The Swedish Academy said on Friday it would postpone this year’s Nobel Literature Prize for the first time in almost 70 years, as it is rocked by turmoil over links to a man accused of rape and sexual assault. “The Swedish Academy intends to decide on and announce the Nobel Prize in Literature   for 2018 in parallel with the naming of the 2019 laureate,” it said. The institution, founded in 1786, has on seven previous occasions chosen to reserve the prize: in 1915, 1919, 1925, 1926, 1927, 1936 and 1949. “On five of those occasions, the prize was delayed then awarded at the same time as the following year’s prize,” the Academy said in a statement. The body has been plunged in crisis since November, in the wake of the global #MeToo campaign, when Swedish newspaper of reference Dagens