Rise in Crime Against Women
According to the report of NCRB for the year 2016, cases under “Crime Against Women” increased by 2.9% in 2016 over 2015. Majority of cases were under the head “Cruelty by Husband or His Relatives” (32.6%) followed by ‘Assault on Women with Intent to Outrage her Modesty’ (25.0%), ‘Kidnapping & Abduction of Women’ (19.0%) and ‘Rape’ (11.5%).
Uttar Pradesh reported the highest number of total cases of crimes against women (14.5% share of all India total – 49,262 cases) followed by West Bengal (9.6% share – 32,513 cases) during 2016. Delhi UT reported the highest crime rate (160.4 cases per lakh of female population) compared to the national average rate of 55.2.
A more appropriate measure of extent of safety enjoyed by women is the number of violence per unit population (referred to as rate of crime). According to this measure, Delhi emerges as the most unsafe place with 160.4 incidents of violence per lakh of female population (15,310 incidents and a share of 4.5% of all India total incidents of violence against women. Assam (131.3 incidents per lakh of female population, 2.58% share of population and 6.2% share of total incidents), Odisha (84.5 incidents per lakh of female population, 3.43% share of population and 5.3% share of total incidents), Telengana (83.7 incidents per lakh of female population, 2.99% share of population and 4.5% share of total incidents) and Rajasthan (78.3 incidents per lakh of female population, 5.7% share of population and 8.1% share of total incidents) occupy the next four positions in that order.
Rape cases have increased by 12.4% from 34,651 cases in 2015 to 38,947 in 2016. Madhya Pradesh (4,882 cases – 12.5% share) and Uttar Pradesh (4,816 cases – 12.4% share) reported the highest incidents of Rape during 2016 followed by Maharashtra (4,189 cases – 10.7% share).
