In a first, India uses 'she', 'her' to denote all people in draft law

In a first in the legislative history of India, pronouns such as 'her' and 'she' have been used to denote all genders in a draft law.

The draft Digital Personal Protection Bill, 2022, which has been put up for public consultation on Friday, finds mention of the two pronouns.

"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 is to protect internet users from online harm and create a safe and trusted digital ecosystem as India is a digital economy powerhouse today.

For the record, 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.

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The central government during the recent Monsoon session of Parliament withdrew the Bill from the Lok Sabha several months after it was introduced.

Vaishnaw had earlier said that the Bill was withdrawn because the Joint Parliamentary Committee recommended 81 amendments in a bill of 99 sections.

"Above that it made 12 major recommendations. Therefore, the bill has been withdrawn and a new bill will be presented for public consultation," he had said.

The reintroduced draft Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022, has proposed six types of penalties on non-companies to companies. To prevent a personal data breach, a penalty of up to Rs2,500 million is being proposed in the draft bill which has been put out for public comments earlier today.

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