Digital Personal Data Protection Bill in India is the first to use the pronouns "She" and "Her" for all Genders

By: WE Staff | Saturday, 19 November 2022

The Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022 is the first law in India to refer to all genders using the pronouns she/her.

The "Interpretation" section of the proposed legislation makes it clear that the pronouns "her" and "she" have been used to refer to any individual, regardless of gender.

The Prime Minister's commitment to the empowerment of women, according to Union Minister for Electronics & Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw, was furthered by this action.

"We have attempted in the philosophy of women's empowerment that Prime Minister Narendra Modi Ji's government works, we have attempted to use the words she and her in the entire bill, instead of he and him and his. So, this is an innovative thing which has been attempted in the bill," he said while speaking to the press.

The law was written with the intention of allowing for the processing of digital personal data in a way that recognises both the necessity to handle personal data for legitimate purposes and the right of persons to have their personal data protected.

Vaishnaw has distributed the bill in an effort to get the public's feedback.

Ravi Shankar Prasad, who was the IT Minister at the time, tabled the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019 in the Lok Sabha on December 11, 2019. The measure aimed to secure personal information about people and create a data protection authority for it.

The Joint Committee of the Houses was asked to review the bill. On December 16, 2021, the Committee provided a report on the subject to the Lok Sabha.

The Central Government then proceeded to remove it in accordance with the Joint Committee of Parliament's fresh recommendations.

The Joint Committee of the Parliament debated the bill in considerable depth, according to a statement made by Vaishnaw (JCP).

"81 amendments were proposed and 12 recommendations were made towards comprehensive legal framework on digital ecosystem," the statement said.

As a result, the 2019 law was withdrawn in light of the JCP's report, and the current replacement draught was instead introduced.