New Delhi: The central government is rolling out a significant new measure aimed at curtailing violence against women. It will deploy AI-powered facial recognition technology at seven railway stations nationwide, including the crucial Delhi-Mumbai corridor. Alongside this, ongoing Safe City Projects in Delhi, Lucknow, Bengaluru, and other cities will reinforce surveillance, ensuring round-the-clock protection for women travellers. In a submission to the Supreme Court, the government revealed that the National Database on Sexual Offenders now contains over two million records. The Home Ministry, responding to a PIL filed by the Supreme Court Women Lawyers Association, confirmed that the AI facial recognition system will be active at major hubs such as Mumbai CST and New Delhi railway stations. The move underscores the administration’s commitment to tackling the rising tide of crimes against women at key transit points.Safe City Projects have been rolled out in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Lucknow, in addition to railway terminals, the Home Ministry informed the Supreme Court. The initiatives feature CCTV surveillance, facial recognition and automatic number plate recognition, and drones keep an eye on high-risk zones. Justice Suryakant’s bench will take up the progress on Monday. The ministry added that the Integrated Emergency Response Management System has been activated at 499 of the 983 railway stations, delivering round-the-clock security for women travellers. The Konkan Railway network has been fitted with 740 cameras across 67 stations, and an AI-driven facial recognition system is set for installation at seven major hubs. The Home Ministry also reported that the National Database of Sexual Offenders stores names, addresses, photographs and fingerprints of individuals implicated in offences including rape, gang rape, molestation, stalking and child abuse. The database holds records for 20.28 lakh offenders and is accessible to police stations and law enforcement agencies via the Inter-operable Criminal Justice System.Mahalakshmi Pavani, representing the Women Lawyers Association, pointed out that the latest NCRB statistics reveal an increase in crimes against women, rising from 58.8 per lakh in 2018 to 66.4 in 2022. She emphasized that the upward trend demands stronger and more effective interventions. The same year, the courts had 23.66 lakh pending cases of crimes against women; only 1.5 lakh of those cases were resolved, and out of that, a mere 38,136 ended in conviction. The Association observed that although several technological initiatives have been launched—such as the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS), Crime Multi Agency Centre (Cr-MAC), National Data Sharing and Open API (NDSO), Investigation Tracking System for Sexual Offenders (ITSSO), Emergency Response Support System (ERSS), and the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C)—they have yet to produce a significant positive impact on the functioning of the criminal justice system.
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