New Guidelines to Tackle Acid Attacks

New Guidelines to Tackle Acid Attacks

The Ministry of Home Affairs is working on preparing a web based application for regulating and tracking sale of acid. The Ministry of Home Affairs has also approached the nationalised insurance agencies to develop a mechanism for providing cashless treatment facility to acid attack victims throughout the country. Fast Tracking of all cases of crimes against women has always been priority of the Government. Necessary steps have been taken in this regard.


This was stated by the Minister of State for Home Affairs, Shri Haribhai Parathibhai Chaudhary in a written reply to a question by Shri T.Rathinavel in the Rajya Sabha today.


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Compensation Fund for Victims of Acid Attacks

The Ministry of Home Affairs has moved a proposal for creation of Central Victim Compensation Fund including compensation for the Victim of acid attacks.

As per the provisional data furnished by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), 309 number of acid attacks cases have been registered during the year 2014 across the country.

Several interactions were held with States/UTs to discuss various directives of the Hon’ble Supreme Court on W.P.(Crl) no. 129/2006 - Laxmi vs UoI and other related matters. Accordingly an Advisory was issued to all the States/UTs titled ‘Measures to be taken to prevent acid attacks on people and for treatment and rehabilitation of survivors’ dated 30th August, 2013 with the objective to prepare Rules as per the provisions of the Poisons Act 1919 in accordance with the Hon’ble Supreme Court’s guidelines to check easy availability of acids and also rehabilitation of the victims. An affidavit has also been filed in the Supreme Court by most of the States/UTs.

Many Advisories had been issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs to the State/UT Governments to safeguard the interest of the Citizens and to protect them from various crimes and to efficiently handle the case in a time bound manner. All these Advisories are available in the website of the Ministry of Home Affairs’ Link: www.mha.nic.in.

This was stated by the Minister of State for Home Affairs, Shri Haribhai Parathibhai Chaudhary in a written reply to a question by Shri T.Rathinavel in the Rajya Sabha today.

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Undertrials and Convicted Persons in Jail

As per the data compiled by the National Crime Records Bureau at the end of 2013, there were 4,11,992 inmates in the jails of the country, out of which the number of convict prisoners was 1,29,608 and the number of undertrials was 2,78,503.

‘Prisons’ is a State subject under Entry 4 of List II of the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution and Prison Administration is primarily the responsibility of the State Governments. The total number of undertrials in jails for a period above 5 years was 3047 in the jails of the country at the end of 2013.

This was stated by the Minister of State for Home Affairs, Shri Haribhai Parathibhai Chaudhary in a written reply to a question by Shri C.P.Narayanan in the Rajya Sabha today.


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Attack on Women in Public Places

The Government of India has taken several steps in form of the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act 2013, setting up of Investigative Units on Crimes against Women (IUCAW), etc. to provide comprehensive safety and security to the women.

The Ministry of Women And Child Development have enacted the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 which cover all women, irrespective of their age or employment status and protect them against sexual harassment at all workplaces both in public and private sector, whether organized or unorganized.

This was stated by the Minister of State for Home Affairs, Shri Haribhai Parathibhai Chaudhary in a written reply to a question by Shri C.P.Narayanan in the Rajya Sabha today.

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Citizenship to Children Born to a Surrogate Indian Mother

The Ministry of Home Affairs has developed guidelines for the foreign nationals intending to visit India for commissioning surrogacy. These guidelines have been notified vide MHA letter no. F No.25022/74/2011-F.I dated 9th July 2012 and have also been circulated to all the Indian missions/posts.

The following provisions have been made under these guidelines for the foreign nationals coming to India for commissioning surrogacy:

1. The appropriate VISA category for the foreign nationals coming to India for commissioning surrogacy will be “Medical VISA”.

2. It will also be necessary in such cases to ensure that the surrogate mother is not cheated. Therefore such a visa may only be granted if the following conditions are fulfilled:

(i) The foreign man and woman are duly married and the marriage should have sustained at least for two years.

(ii) A letter from the Embassy of the foreign country in India or the Foreign Ministry of the country should be enclosed with the Visa application stating clearly that (a) the country recognizes surrogacy and (b) the child/children to be born to the commissioning couple through the Indian surrogate mother will be permitted entry into their country as a biological child/children of the couple commissioning surrogacy.

(iii) The couple will furnish an undertaking that they would take care of the child/children born through surrogacy.

(iv) The treatment should be done only at one of the registered Assisted Reproduce Technology (ART) clinics recognized by ICMR. (The list of such clinics will be shared with MEA from time to time).

(v) The couple should produce a duly notarized agreement between the applicant couple and the prospective Indian surrogate mother.

3. If any of the above conditions are not fulfilled, the visa application shall be rejected.

4. Before the grant of visa, the foreign couple need to be told that before leaving India for their return journey, ‘exit’ permission from FRRO/FRO would be required. Before granting ‘exit’, the FRRO/FRO will see whether the foreign couple is carrying a certificate from the ART clinic concerned regarding the fact that the child/children have been duly taken custody of by the foreigner and that the liabilities towards the Indian surrogate mother have been fully discharged as per the agreement. A copy of the birth certificate(s) of the surrogate child/children will be retained by the FRRO/FRO along with photocopies of the passport and visa of the foreign parents.

This was stated by the Minister of State for Home Affairs, Shri Kiren Rijiju in a written reply to a question by Shri Sanjay Raut in the Rajya Sabha today.


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