THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state home department is ready with a draft bill that would allow the preparation of a sex offenders’ database that can be accessed by the public and the various enforcement agencies. The draft bill titled ‘The Kerala Sex Offender Registration Bill, 2018’, accessed by TOI, aims to prepare an electronic database which will collate and retain all the necessary information about sex offenders.
The access for the public, however, will be conditional with necessary penal clauses against misuse of the registry. There are also provisions in the draft bill to de-stigmatise the offenders who figure in the database by getting their names removed, and provisions to penalize those who discriminate and harass the offenders.