{"id":14000,"date":"2021-02-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-02-05T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/current_affairs\/uncategorized\/05-02-2021\/recommendations-on-dna-bill\/"},"modified":"2021-02-05T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-02-05T00:00:00","slug":"recommendations-on-dna-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/05-02-2021\/recommendations-on-dna-bill","title":{"rendered":"Recommendations on DNA Bill"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>In News:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Recently, the <strong>Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment, Forests and Climate Change<\/strong> has recommended that the government should ease the concerns raised over the <strong>DNA Technology (Use and Application) Regulation Bill, 2019<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The committee<strong> consulted legal and forensic science experts<\/strong>, apart from the <strong>Internet Freedom Foundation<\/strong>, <strong>National Law University<\/strong>, among others.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Background:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Bill was<strong> proposed in 2003 for the first time<\/strong> and since then it has gone through <strong>several revisions<\/strong>, by both the Department of Biotechnology and Law Ministry.\n<ul>\n<li>The Department of Biotechnology has argued that <strong>nearly 60 countries have enacted similar legislation<\/strong> and that<strong> all-important matters<\/strong> related to privacy, confidentiality and data protection have been<strong> taken into account<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>In <strong>July 2019<\/strong>, it was again introduced in the <strong>Lok Sabha<\/strong> and after being passed, was <strong>referred to the Committee<\/strong> in <strong>October 2019<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Highlights of the Bill:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Database Creation:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>It <strong>aims to establish a database<\/strong> of \u201c<strong>certain categories of persons<\/strong>\u201d such as victims of crimes, missing persons and children, unidentified bodies, as well as offenders, suspects and undertrials in cases.\n<ul>\n<li>Such a database would<strong> help trace repeat offenders of heinous crimes <\/strong>such as rape and murder through <strong>DNA profiling<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Regulation of DNA Technology:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>It <strong>regulates the use of DNA technology<\/strong> for establishing the identity of persons in respect of matters listed in a Schedule.\n<ul>\n<li>These include <strong>criminal matters<\/strong> such as offences under the <strong>Indian Penal Code, 1860<\/strong>, and <strong>civil matters<\/strong> such as parentage disputes, emigration or immigration, and transplantation of human organs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>National DNA Data Bank:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>It establishes a <strong>National DNA Data Bank<\/strong> and <strong>Regional DNA Data Banks<\/strong>, which will maintain the following indices:\n<ul>\n<li>Crime scene index.<\/li>\n<li>Suspects\u2019 or undertrials\u2019 index.<\/li>\n<li>Offenders\u2019 index.<\/li>\n<li>Missing persons\u2019 index.<\/li>\n<li>Unknown deceased persons\u2019 index.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>DNA Regulatory Board:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>It also establishes a <strong>DNA Regulatory Board<\/strong> and <strong>every DNA laboratory<\/strong> that analyses a DNA sample to establish the identity of an individual, <strong>has to be accredited by the Board<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Requirement of Consent:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Written consent <\/strong>by individuals is<strong> required<\/strong> to collect DNA samples from them. Consent is <strong>not required<\/strong> for offences with a<strong> punishment of more than seven years<\/strong> of <strong>imprisonment <\/strong>or <strong>death<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Removal of DNA Profiles:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>It provides for the <strong>removal of DNA profiles<\/strong> of suspects on filing of a police report or court order, and of undertrials on the basis of a court order.<\/li>\n<li>Profiles in the crime scene and missing persons\u2019 index will be removed on a written request.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Benefits of DNA Profiling and the Bill:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Through DNA profiling techniques, <strong>crimes can be easily solved<\/strong> which will help to <strong>nab criminals<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>The technique is very <strong>effective in identifying accident<\/strong> victims, missing people or identifying disaster victims.<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>identification of parents<\/strong> is also possible with the use of the DNA profiling, which would prove <strong>helpful in property disputes<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>As per the <strong>National Crime Records Bureau<\/strong>, annually 1,00,000 children go missing and the Bill will enable <strong>identification of missing children<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>The standards of the DNA testing laboratories are <strong>not monitored or regulated<\/strong>, <strong>in absence of any proper regulation<\/strong> so it will be helpful in this regard.<\/li>\n<li>The Bill will also <strong>help in identifying unidentified deceased<\/strong>, including disaster victims and apprehend repeat offenders for crimes such as rape and murder.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Concerns Raised:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The <strong>data stored in the various indices<\/strong> of the DNA Data Bank could be <strong>misused to target segments of society<\/strong> based on religion, caste, etc., if <strong>gone into the wrong hands<\/strong>.\n<ul>\n<li>In a<strong> blind crime or a crime involving a large number<\/strong> of persons (such as a riot) <strong>everybody is suspect<\/strong>, without any real basis.<\/li>\n<li>It means that thousands of persons can be <strong>subjected to DNA profiling on a mere suspicion<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>A <strong>crime scene could also hold DNA of someone who was not present at or nearby<\/strong> it because \u201cbodily material like hair could be transported to the crime scene accidentally by a variety of ways.\u201d These DNA profiles could find their way into the \u2018crime scene index\u2019 of the national databank.<\/li>\n<li>Provisions of the Bill would lead to <strong>violations of the Right to Privacy<\/strong> and will cause irreversible damage to individuals\u2019 right to privacy as well as the criminal justice system.<\/li>\n<li>Without adequate statutory safeguards, the Bill<strong> could prove problematic particularly for marginalised communities<\/strong>, including <strong>Dalits<\/strong>, <strong>Adivasis <\/strong>and <strong>religious <\/strong>and <strong>gender minorities<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Concerns regarding <strong>caste profiling<\/strong> as well as the <strong>use of collected information for targeted discrimination<\/strong> of specific groups.<\/li>\n<li>There are concerns on <strong>not creating separate data banks for civil and criminal matters<\/strong>.\n<ul>\n<li>This will result in a<strong> presumption against <\/strong>the person, even though they have not consented to giving their DNA sample <strong>for use in the criminal investigation<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Recommendations:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The concerns regarding the Bill are <strong>not entirely unfounded<\/strong> and have to be <strong>recognised and addressed by Parliament<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>An <strong>enabling ecosystem must be created<\/strong> to ensure that DNA profiling is done in a manner that is fully consistent with various <strong>Supreme Court judgments<\/strong> and with the <strong>Constitution<\/strong>.\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Justice K S Puttaswamy (Retd) vs Union Of India, 2018:<\/strong> The SC held that right to privacy was a constitutionally protected fundamental right under <strong>Articles 14, 19 and 21<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>On \u2018DNA profiles finding a way to the index\u2019, the panel suggests that these should be <strong>used only for investigation<\/strong> but not put in a databank.\n<ul>\n<li>Also, these DNA profiles <strong>should be destroyed once a trial is over<\/strong>, barring those of the convicted.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Strongly recommends <strong>only one National Data Bank<\/strong> in order to minimise chances of misuse of data.<\/li>\n<li>The DNA Regulatory <strong>Board should be independent <\/strong>and <strong>not consist of fully serving government officials<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>DNA samples should be taken <strong>only with the consent of an individual<\/strong> and <strong>no person should be forced to provide evidence <\/strong>that may incriminate him\/her in any crime.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cfstatic.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/file_library\/mix_content\/480637327747721660_image.png\" style=\"height:412px; width:624px\" \/><\/p>\n<table border=\"1\" cellspacing=\"0\" style=\"width:624px\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"vertical-align:top; width:6.5in\">\n<p><strong>DNA Profiling<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>DNA profiling (also called <strong>DNA fingerprinting<\/strong> or <strong>forensic genetics<\/strong>) is a technique employed by forensic scientists <strong>to assist in the identification of individuals<\/strong> or <strong>samples by their respective DNA profiles<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Although more than <strong>99.1% of the genome is the same<\/strong> throughout the human population, the r<strong>emaining 0.9% of human DNA shows variations<\/strong> between individuals.<\/li>\n<li>These variable DNA sequences, termed <strong>polymorphic markers<\/strong>, can be used to both differentiate and correlate individuals.<\/li>\n<li>DNA profiling uses the <strong>polymerase chain reaction<\/strong> (PCR) to produce many copies.\n<ul>\n<li>PCR is an automated procedure that <strong>generates lots of copies of a specific sequence of DNA<\/strong>. It only requires small amounts of DNA to start with and can even make copies from a DNA sample that is partially degraded.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cfstatic.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/file_library\/mix_content\/761758942326655100_image.png\" style=\"height:448px; margin-left:50px; margin-right:50px; width:420px\" \/><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/india\/dna-bill-parliament-7173639\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Source: IE<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In News: Recently, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment, Forests and Climate Change has recommended that the government should ease the concerns raised over the DNA Technology (Use and Application) Regulation Bill, 2019. The committee consulted legal and forensic science experts, apart from the Internet Freedom Foundation, National Law University, among others. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14001,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2023\/07\/770478current-affairs.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}