Mumbai CST, New Delhi among 7 railway stations to get AI facial recognition for women’s safety

CST Mumbai

The Union government has informed the Supreme Court that it plans to install Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based facial recognition systems at seven major railway stations, including Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CST) and New Delhi, to enhance security for women.

According to a TOI report, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) disclosed in an affidavit that the National Database on Sexual Offenders (NDSO) has now recorded over 20 lakh entries. The move comes in response to a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by the Supreme Court Women Lawyers’ Association, which raised concerns over increasing crimes against women.

The affidavit detailed that apart from railway stations, safe city projects have been implemented in eight metropolitan cities - Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Lucknow - where local authorities are deploying CCTV cameras with facial recognition, automatic number plate recognition, smart lighting and drones to monitor high-risk zones, TOI reported.

The MHA reportedly stated that the Integrated Emergency Response Management System (IERMS) is already operational in 499 out of 983 major railway stations, ensuring round-the-clock security for women passengers. The Konkan Railway Network has also seen the installation of 740 CCTV cameras across 67 stations, with plans to expand AI-based surveillance further.

The NDSO, accessible to all police stations via the Inter-Operable Criminal Justice System (ICJS), contains detailed records of sexual offenders, including names, addresses, photographs and fingerprints. These entries cover crimes such as rape, gangrape, stalking, eve-teasing and child abuse.

TOI reported that despite these measures, the women lawyers’ association, represented by senior advocate Mahalakshmi Pavani, argued that more needs to be done. Citing National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data, they pointed out that crimes against women rose from 58.8 per lakh in 2018 to 66.4 per lakh in 2022.

In a rejoinder to the Centre’s affidavit, Pavani reportedly highlighted that out of 23.66 lakh pending cases of crimes against women in 2022, only 1.5 lakh were decided, with a mere 38,136 ending in conviction. As per TOI, the association also expressed scepticism over the effectiveness of existing tech-driven initiatives like the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) and the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C).

A bench headed by Justice Surya Kant is set to hear the PIL on Monday.