Sex offenders database: Is it needed in India?

After several brutal incidents of sexual assault and rape this year in India, and especially after the Delhi incident, there has been a flood of ideas and demands to stop this kind of  crime.

These ideas include calls for new laws, more effective implementation of current laws, increase in punishment, judicial reforms (fast-track courts), change in society's and especially the police force's attitude to women, addressing and rectifying rape culture, self-defense courses for women, gender-sensitivity education for men, reforms in media portrayal of rape and many others.

One of the suggestions is to create a sex offenders database for the country. Here I'm trying to explore this particular issue and whether it has any merit and is worth pursuing,

Disclaimer: my knowledge about this issue is limited to that gleaned from the internet. This post is more about putting down thoughts and information learned, on paper and hoping to gain some insights if anyone knowledgeable about this cares to share them here.

Some places to start, to get a grasp on this issue are:

Sex Offender registration across the world (Wikipedia link)
Debate on pros and cons of creating a sex offender database (External debate site) - an excellent compendium of pros and cons about this issue.
Some thoughts and a discussion can be found at this post by Nirwa Mehta.

A brief summary from above-

1) A database like this could act as a deterrent (" Knowing that, if they commit an offence, their name, photograph, and a description of their crimes will be widely published deters people from committing the offence in the first place and equally of reoffending. ... Such publication may limit their opportunity to access such encounters in the future, and therefore the policy aims to operate such as to minimise what a person desires should they commit a crime")

2) It can help people take precautions to protect themselves

3) It can encourage vigilantism. ("In at least two instances, convicted sex offenders were murdered after their information was made available over the Internet.")

4) It can be a stigmatizing and alienating tool

5) It will be expensive to maintain. (Also, given India's population and infrastructure, this would be a logistical nightmare)

6) Australia, Canada, UK, Ireland, US and Norway have these systems in place.


I think in the Indian context, one purpose that such a database might serve is to act as a deterrent for a particular kind of rapist - the urban affluent rapist who preys on women and children in his family or at his workplace. This kind of person is more likely to have access to, be aware of and be affected by his name and details of his crime being made publicly accessible. It has severe implications for his career, housing and social standing. In a case where rapes are committed by a relative or a neighbor on minors, it is unclear how improving policing or raising the punishment will help. Apart from the parents taking precautions, such a database might help in preventing rapes by acting as a deterrent.

Perhaps having such a database might also help in preventing cross-border crimes (across state lines) by helping police to have faster access to a person's criminal records. I'm not aware if such a system already exists at the national level.

(The issue of migrants is controversial and I couldn't find numbers that give a good picture of how many of the rape crimes are committed by migrants. To blame this issue on migrants is irresponsible and wrong and that is not what I am trying to do here. The reason for including this point is to acknowledge the possibility that some criminals would be likely to commit crimes in one state and move to another.)

Currently, police encourages people to register and verify details of any new domestic help or driver they are hiring. It is not known how many do this. Having a centralised database (not necessarily national) will help in identifying if a person has a history of sexual offences. The police can then advise on precautions to be taken while hiring such a person. And this need not be limited to people working as hired help. Even those working in white collar jobs can be subjected to such background checks with the help of a registry.

There perhaps is no one single solution to the problem of rape. Every suggestion to counter this menace can be questioned with 'Oh, but how would it have prevented this particular case of rape?' (It wouldn't have, but perhaps it would help prevent another variant of this crime.) If someone suggests better policing, they will be asked how will it solve the rapes occurring inside homes. If capital punishment is suggested, there is the example of capital punishment not being able to eradicate homicides.

Implementing one change does not prevent us from taking other steps.

I'm sure there are a lot of limitations to creating a database like this. It will definitely be useless in countering some situations where rapes occur. But would this database be considered worthwhile if even a small percentage of such heinous incidents are prevented because of it?

There would of course be a lot of steps and counter checks needed for this kind of system to be useful. An efficient police and judicial machinery, regular maintenance and revision of the database, provision of mental healthcare to both the perpetrator and the survivors are only some of those steps. Although a huge chunk of the population does not use Internet right now, is the situation going to remain the same over the next say 20 years? The rapid growth of smartphones provides another avenue for using such a database.

The government of India seems to be already taking steps in this direction  . But it is sad to see the focus being on just shaming the convicted, which will perhaps have more of an effect on the relatives of the convicted.. Nowhere does the word prevention or how the public should effectively use the database or how the government plans to tackle possible vigilantism, figure in the press release.

Stop reading and watching stuff so much! or don't.

What if we start looking at every bit of information as taking up space in our brain. Would that compel us to limit the information we absorb every day? Will limiting that intake help to process our other thoughts better? Simply put – if you read and think about only the stuff relevant to you, will you get better at thinking about it?

The idea of our brain functioning better by limiting information is like imagining a computer that might function faster and smoother if its RAM is cleared.

This sounds obvious but it must be questioned because of a competing hypothesis – that the most successful ideas are collaborative in nature – those that make connections through different disciplines, instead of being sourced from in-depth knowledge of one field only. And for that to happen, either you must have decent knowledge of different disciplines or you must team up with those who have that knowledge.

We already have the concept of information taking up space in an abstract way, when for example we say ‘my mind is too full of ____ right now’. And if we have to think about it physiologically, we can imagine ideas and memories stored as connections between neurons. Each connection holding the link to one or more memories. These connections will take up space (even though our brain tends to compact and convert memories into small fragments).

From the literature on meditation and mindfulness, an idea emerges that perhaps practicing those skills makes the brain better at processing huge amounts of information. Which means even if your mind is filled up to the brim with new information everyday, being mindful and meditating will help file it away or dump it in a better way. This might be true but there still remains a role for feeding the brain relevant material only - to reduce the load that it has to process.

Also, we have limited time on our hands. And we don’t even know how much of it we have.

Perhaps the ideal way would be to limit your reading and information intake to only that which is relevant to your work and interests (limit the interests too!) and get really good at what you do. And then collaborate with people who are good with an entirely different knowledge area. I guess this is how they build mega-structures like aircraft carriers, oil refineries and do complex surgeries.

Interestingly, it is said that Bill Gates sets aside two weeks in a year solely for the purpose of reading books and articles collected (and selected) over the year. The reason he does that is to be able to form better connections between the various topics he reads. It’s easier for the brain to connect a topic that’s fresh in the memory with the one it’s reading right now rather than one which was read 6 months ago. In a way, he’s limiting his information intake while simultaneously exploring different disciplines to form new connections and ideas. Smart.

Sex, religion and spirituality(Part 2) Some examples.

I shamelessly looked up wikipedia for some references and found a few interesting things that surprised me:


Judaism: “Many Jewish sources describe the overall attitude towards human sexuality and sexual behavior in Judaism as positive ...The basic Jewish positive attitude towards sex and sexuality is especially opposed to Western Christianity, which does not view the matter much in favor, due to a belief that sex has been contaminated by original sin. ….Some Kabbalists view the sexual pleasure as a possible path leading to a sublimation of devoutness”

Taoism: “Some Taoist sects during the Han Dynasty performed sexual intercourse as a spiritual practice, called "HeQi" ("Joining Energy"). They especially like to try erotic things. The first sexual texts that survive today are those found at the Mawangdui tombs. While Taoism had not yet fully evolved as a philosophy at this time, these texts shared some remarkable similarities with later Tang dynasty texts, such as the Ishinpō. The sexual arts arguably reached their climax between the end of the Han dynasty and the end of the Tang dynasty. After 1000 A.D. [CE], Confucian puritanism became stronger and stronger, so that by the advent of the Qing dynasty, sex was a taboo topic in public life.”

Hindu concepts about sexuality are a broad topic best covered in another post.

These are some of  the major religions, but tribal cultures across the planet  have had sex as an integral part of their religious or spiritual practice and communal life. Examples can be found amongst tribes in Papua New Guinea (“Most of the tribal patterns of sexual activity were rationalized as mechanisms to gather the spiritual force residing in sexual fluids, i.e., sexual power, and redirect it to social and material aims, such as improving the growth of boys or strengthening the clan’s reproductive powers, both human and agricultural”) and the  Tarahumara in Mexico etc.

Although the following example is not connected to religion, I'm noting it here because it shows the practice of sex in a very open-minded and natural manner, not disconnected with society. In India, the Ghotuls of Central India have sexual mores and practices that would probably put even the most liberal of the cosmopolitan crowds to shame. They see sex to be as natural as hunger or sleep. "Boys and girls 'date' from an age of ten onwards, no distinction is made between love and sex...Because of their sexual freedom, at the time of marriage, neither is the bride a virgin, nor is the groom inexperienced." The section describing the manner in which tribals impart sex education to their young is particularly fascinating.

I can only speculate why this might have been so, or rather the advantages of this connect between sex and spirituality. If sex is intimately connected to spiritual practice (albeit with strict rules about when, where, with whom and how to practice it, but minus the stigma), it becomes accessible to virtually everyone. You no longer have to practice strict celibacy or intense penance to feel closer to God. There remain no mediators between you and god, and in a sense spirituality gets democratized. Women get equal or more power in the scheme of things because without their participation, men (with some exceptions) would not be able to practice this. More significantly, it becomes something that everyone aspires to and practices while leading a regular life.

While reading about this, a pattern emerged. As puritanical beliefs, sects and religions started dominating the scene, sex came to be viewed as sin and a disconnect happened between sex and spirituality. And the stigma is quite pervasive, even in the West. At a micro level, this is seen when adults laugh nervously or giggle if someone brings up the topic of sex in a public space. I think the nervous laughter helps to release the tension they feel when thinking about sex. Wonder how it would feel to not have this stigma when you are growing up into adulthood.

For God or a lover? Part 1

I have noticed this to be a common theme across other forms of devotional and spiritual poetry too and have often wondered about it. This includes Kabir’s dohas, Sufi poems, Meera bai’s bhajans, and works by other Indian mystics and saint poets. (Wish I knew about other religions and cultures more). They almost universally address god as their beloved, they talk about god in very personal and endearing terms; love supersedes respect (respect in the conventional sense of fear of being punished by God. A side note: What I like about this form of devotion is the absence of a putative Hell. There is no mention of god punishing anybody for straying off the rules laid by him/her. They seem to be primarily concerned with leading a humane life - not because you’d be punished for not doing so, but so that you may come closer to truth or love).

Of course I suppose that concept gets periodic revival. For example this hindi pop song:

He is one of my favorite singers, the song is okay - not that great, but I remembered this song because in one interview the singer explained how it was made. They set out writing a romantic song and even while composing it, they realized that the lyrics could be considered devotional. And so they shot the video with a religious and spiritual theme instead of a romantic one. Same song, same lyrics, just the interpretation changed. I found that pretty interesting.

This recurring theme was one of the reasons that got me thinking about the connection between spirituality and love/sex/eroticism/romance.

Now, merely talking about god in words that one would use for a lover is obviously different from making a connection between sex and spirituality. One could argue that love does not (always) lead to or imply a desire for sex and it probably doesn’t. In fact platonic love for anyone is often given a higher moral authority. But therein lies the catch. What if this view of sex as something lower than platonic love is a recent phenomenon? What if, at some point in the past, sexual love was considered equal to or higher than platonic love?



For the moment, drop the negative connotations that are now associated with sex, and consider only the act. Even now, intercourse with a lover or spouse is considered to be a wonderful (sacred?) manifestation of love - something beautiful to be celebrated and cherished (This is declining of course but there are still many folks out there who do not look at sex as merely as an enjoyable biological process). Would it be so surprising that the act of communion itself could take on properties of the sacred, a means to reach and realize the final Love? At the molecular level, the hormones and neurotransmitters released by a genuinely intense orgasm, the muscular tension and its subsequent release, the sounds, all the sensations, the warm body besides one’s skin could make that person feel that this is almost a divine experience. Centuries of mystics and oracles have used and still use drugs, marijuana, opium and whatnot to achieve that high, that trance-like state to reach closer to god. Orgasmic sex, removed from its present cultural context and performed for the purpose of worship, could also be a means to achieve that high in earlier times. It does not seem that improbable. There’s an academic book I have barely skimmed, though it is on my reading list, (Sacred Sexuality: The Erotic Spirit in the World's Great Religions) with the message that ‘all of these (religious) teachings share the hidden message that spirituality is, in essence, erotic and that sexuality is inherently spiritual’.

(Excerpted from private letters)

Yo! ga

"Imagine a ball of energy between your navel and pubic bone. It's orange in color. It is glowing, soft, gentle, juicy, warm and its glow is spreading to cover your abdomen and thighs and arms and legs and head and your entire body as you breathe in. And as you breathe out, its glow spread to those around you to bathe the world in tranquility and peace."

I've been trying yoga for some days now and it's hard to keep a straight face through monologues like the one above by the yoga instructors at my place.

They're very professional and helpful though. And they know what they are doing.

They have this knack of describing body movements in strange exquisite details.

So, a simple 'straighten your back' becomes 'pull your shoulders to the back of the room and the floor, zip up your stomach, push out the heart center, reach the crown of your head to the roof (reach! reach! reach!) and let your chin float farther away from your chest as you inhaaale deeply taking in all the positive energy from the atmosphere into your body and let the negative energy with all the stress, anxiety and tension out to feel a sense of alert calm coursing through your entire body'.


And this is just for a basic standing posture. I really need to record some of the descriptions they give for asanas.


The only quibbles I have are that some of them tend to mix in pilates with asanas and some have a habit of playing music that really doesn't go well with the practice. I can see how chants and slow instrumental music can be a part of a deliberate, slow yoga sadhana, but blues? jazz? pop? Silence is much better.

The best part of the practice is the end of course - shavasan, where you simply lie down like a corpse and let each body part relax gradually. It is much more enjoyable if the practice immediately before the shavasan has been rigorous and taxing.