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New Delhi: The government is moving to make indecent representation of women on digital messaging platforms like WhatsApp and Skype as illegal and punishable. Amendments to the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act (IRWA), 1986 have already been proposed by the Ministry of Women and Child Development. As per the proposed amendment, the word ‘advertisement’ as defined in the Act would include its various ‘digital and electronic forms or SMS and MMS’.

The ministry has proposed the amendments after taking into consideration observations made by a parliamentary standing committee and recommendations given by the National Commission for Women. The amendments mainly propose to expand the scope of the IRWA.

It was felt that there was a need to widen the scope of the Act following recent technological advancement in the field of communications. "Since the enactment of the Act, technological revolution has resulted in the development of new forms of communication, such as internet, multi-media messaging, over-the-top (OTT) services and applications like Skype, Viber, WhatsApp, Chat On, Snapchat etc.

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"Keeping in mind these technological advancements, it has been decided to widen the scope of the law so as to cover such forms of media on one hand and to strengthen the existing safeguards to prevent indecent representation of women through any media form on the other," a statement issued by the WCD Ministry said.

"The reformulated draft bill proposes amendment in definition of term advertisement to include digital form or electronic form or hoardings, or SMS, MMS etc," it added.

The ministry further "proposed amendments in definition of distribution to include publication, license or uploading using computer resource, or communication device and amendment in Section 4 to include that no person shall publish or distribute or cause to be published or cause to be distributed by any means any material which contains indecent representation of women in any form".

As per the amendments proposed, a person held liable under the amended Act would face a penalty similar to that prescribed under the Information Technology Act, 2000. Further, the draft bill moots the creation of a central authority that would function under the National Commission of Women.

Member Secretary, NCW, has been proposed to be the head of this authority, which would also have representatives from the Advertising Standards Council of India, the Press Council of India, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, and a member who has prior experience in the field of women issues.

"This centralised authority will be authorised to receive complaints or grievances regarding any programme or advertisement broadcast or publication and investigate/ examine all matters relating to the indecent representation of women," the WCD Ministry statement read.

In its present form, the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act, 1986 prohibits indecent representation of women through advertisements, publications, writings, paintings, figures or in any other manner.

In December 2012, the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Amendment Bill, 2012 was introduced in the Rajya Sabha which had referred it to a parliamentary standing committee for consideration.