A committee set up by the Maharashtra government to recommend measure to curb crime against women, has suggested a clamp down on obscene and offencive material available on the Internet and social networking sites.
Justice Chandrashekhar Dharmadhikari
committee has also suggested that a rape-accused who is fifteen years old or above must not be treated as a juvenile.
There is an urgent need to impose restrictions on objectionable material which is easily available on the Internet as it has the tendency to "corrupt young minds", says the third interim report of the committee.
The copy of the report was produced before the Bombay High Court last week during the hearing on a public interest litigation filed by NGO 'Help Mumbai Foundation'.
There should be immediate restrictions on "networking, Facebook, mobile phone and vulgar and indecent conversations and exchange of pictures", the committee says.
Another recommendation is that names of the people convicted for crimes against women be published. This would bring about awareness and prevent such crimes, it says.
Further, it says, those who do not report the crimes against women too should be treated as offenders. "Being a mute spectator is a crime," says the committee.
The panel castigates the police for being insensitive to to the women. If a police officer refuses to take cognisance of a crime against women, he should be prosecuted and his senior should be held responsible too, it suggests.
