For the first time, the pronoun, ‘she’, ‘her’ have been used to refer to all the genders in a draft law. The two pronouns have been mentioned in the draft Digital Protection Bill, 2022 whi has been put up for public consultation.
“With the philosophy Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government works, we have attempted to use the word ‘she’ and ‘her’ in the entire Bill instead of ‘him’ and ‘his’. This is an innovative thing attempted in the bill,” Union Minister for Railways, Communications, Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Friday.
The focus of the bill centers around protection of internet users from online harm and to creat a safe digital ecosystem. Three months after the withdrawal of the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill from the lower house of the Parliament, the central government today came up with a new draft Bill seeking views from the public. The central government during the recent Monsoon session of Parliament withdrew the Bill from the Lok Sabha several months after it was introduced.
“Above that it made 12 major recommendations. Therefore, the bill has been withdrawn and a new bill will be presented for public consultation,” Vaishnaw further said.
During the drafting of the Personal Data Protection Bill 2019, the government said that the principles of the bill were widely discussed and debated. These include rights of individuals, duties of entities processing personal data and regulatory framework, among others.
In major exemption, the Central Government may, by notification, exempt from the application of provisions of this Act, the processing of personal data by any instrumentality of the State in the interests of sovereignty and integrity of India, security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States, maintenance of public order or preventing incitement to any cognizable offence.