A private member bill, namely the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Amendment) Bill, 2024, was introduced in the Rajya Sabha for consideration and passing today. NCP MP Dr Fauzia Khan moved the bill, which seeks to amend the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012. Speaking on this bill, Dr. Khan said several pressing threats are being faced today, such as drug abuse, digital exploitation, and rising cases of juvenile offences. She said the National Crime Records Bureau reported that POCSO cases increased by 94.47 percent in six years since 2017. She added that the number of registered cases had increased to over 2,99,000. She said this bill aims to address these challenges by introducing victim-centric reforms.
Speaking on the bill, Dr Radha Mohan Das Aggarwal of BJP welcomed the amendments introduced in the POCSO (Amendment) Bill 2024. He said the government started one-stop centres in 2015, and there are around 900 such centres operating in the country. Congress MP Jairam Ramesh said that there is a need for legislative changes that would be instrumental in restricting children’s exposure to pornography. BJP MP Dr. Sudhanshu Trivedi said that the Modi government has strengthened the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act. The discussion remained inclusive.
Earlier, several MPs introduced multiple private members’ bills in the Upper House. Trinamool Congress MP Mausam B. Noor introduced the Artificial Intelligence (Protection of Rights of Employees) Bill, 2023. The bill seeks to protect the rights of employees in relation to the use and implementation of artificial intelligence in workplaces and regulate its use. She also introduced the Deepfake Prevention and Criminalisation Bill, 2023. The bill seeks to prevent and criminalise the creation, dissemination, and use of deepfake content without consent or a digital watermark.
Another party MP, Derek O’Brien, introduced a bill to amend the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023. Congress MP Fauzia Khan introduced the Bill to Amend the Coaching Institutes (Accountability and Regulation) Bill, 2024. The bill seeks to provide for the establishment of an authority to regulate coaching institutes across the country for the oversight and accountability of such institutes.
