NEW DELHI: The Union government has informed the Supreme Court of plans to deploy Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered facial recognition systems at seven major railway stations, including Mumbai CST and New Delhi, to combat crimes against women. The National Database on Sexual Offenders (NDSO) currently contains over 20 lakh records, the government stated.
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), responding to a PIL filed by the Supreme Court Women Lawyers’ Association expressing concern over the rise in crimes against women, outlined ongoing safety measures in an affidavit. Alongside railway stations, “Safe City” projects have been implemented in eight major cities—Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Lucknow—through local police and municipal authorities.
These initiatives focus on enhancing safety infrastructure by installing CCTV cameras equipped with facial recognition and automatic number plate recognition technology, deploying smart lighting systems, and using drones to monitor high-risk areas, the government said. A bench led by Justice Surya Kant is scheduled to hear the PIL on Monday.
The MHA noted, “The Integrated Emergency Response Management System (IERMS) is operational at 499 out of 983 major railway stations, providing round-the-clock security for women passengers.”
Furthermore, the Konkan Railway Network has installed 740 CCTV cameras across 67 stations, with plans to expand the use of AI-based facial recognition at the seven key stations, including Mumbai CST and New Delhi.
The NDSO includes detailed information such as names, addresses, photographs, and fingerprints of individuals involved in sexual offenses, including rape, gang rape, eve teasing, stalking, and child abuse. This database, with over 20.28 lakh entries, is accessible to police and law enforcement agencies nationwide through the Inter-Operable Criminal Justice System (ICJS).
However, the Women Lawyers’ Association, represented by senior advocate Mahalakshmi Pavani, argued that more needs to be done, citing National Crime Records Bureau data showing an increase in crimes against women from 58.8 per lakh population in 2018 to 66.4 per lakh in 2022.
In response to the government’s affidavit, Pavani highlighted, “In 2022, 23.66 lakh cases of crimes against women were pending trial, with only 1.5 lakh cases decided that year and just 38,136 resulting in convictions.”
The association emphasized that while technology-driven initiatives like the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS), Crime Multi-Agency Centre (Cr-MAC), NDSO, Investigation Tracking System for Sexual Offenders (ITSSO), Emergency Response Support System (ERSS), and Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) aim to improve the criminal justice system, they have yet to bring significant impact.
