The Government is considering changes in the law to put a check “indecent depiction” of women, especially in the new media.

The Government feels the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act, 1986, needs to be amended to deal effectively with the growing menace of new and more advanced technologies being used to depict women as sexual objects.

The proposed amendments, which include expansion of the definition of indecent representation, bringing new media under its ambit and enhancing the penalty for violating provisions, are likely to be taken up soon.

Sources in the Ministry of Women and Child Development said the law right now takes care of mostly the print media, with the new electronic and digital media outside its purview. Following the amendments, the definition of “publication” would encompass electronically/digitally conceived or perceived files distributed through audio-visual media, including computers and the internet. Similarly, the amended definition of advertisement will include visible representation by means of any light, including “laser light”, “fibre optic” “electronic or any other media”.

These amendments will help define content on the Net and enable action against publishers and advertisers violating the law.

Under the amended law, production, circulation or transmission by post or “any other means” of any book, pamphlet, paper, slide, film, writing, drawing, painting, photograph, or representation of a figure that contains indecent or derogatory representation of women in any form is prohibited.

The Bill also seeks to enhance monetary fine to violators by nearly five times.