New Delhi: The crime against women increased 7.3% from 2018 to 2019, and crimes against Scheduled Castes also went up 7.3 per cent in the same period, according to the annual National Crime Record Bureau’s ‘Crime in India’ 2019 report released on Tuesday.
On aggregate, Uttar Pradesh reported the highest number of cases in both these categories. Whereas Assam reported the highest rate of crimes against women and Rajasthan had the highest rate of crimes against Scheduled Castes.
During 2019, a total of 4,05,861 cases of crime against women were registered showing an increase of 7.3% over 2018 (3,78,236 cases). Majority of cases under crime against women under IPC were registered under ‘cruelty by husband or his relatives’ (30.9%). Then by the assault on women with intent to outrage her modesty’ (21.8%), ‘kidnapping & abduction of women’ (17.9%) and ‘rape’ (7.9%). The crime rate registered per lakh women population is 62.4 in 2019 in comparison with 58.8 in 2018,’ says the NCRB report.
UP reported the highest number of crimes against women by 59,853 accounting for 14.7% of such cases across the country. It was followed by Rajasthan (41,550 cases; 10.2 per cent) and Maharashtra (37,144 cases; 9.2 per cent). Assam reported the highest rate of crime against women at 177.8 (per lakh population), followed by Rajasthan (110.4) and Haryana (108.5).
Under the POSCO act, UP had the highest number of crimes against girl children with 7,444 cases, followed by Maharashtra (6,402) and MP (6,053). The highest rate of these crimes were in Sikkim (27.1 per lakh population), MP (15.1), and Haryana (14.6).
UP had the highest number of dowry cases (2,410), at a rate of 2.2 (per lakh population), followed by Bihar (1,120). According to the report, 150 acid attacks were reported in 2019, of which 42 took place in UP and 36 in West Bengal.
With 28.9% (13,273 cases) formed the largest group of cases of crimes/ atrocities against Scheduled Castes during 2019, followed by cases under SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act with 9.0% (4,129 cases), and cases under rape with 7.6% (3,486 cases),’ says the report.
UP reported the most cases against Scheduled Castes – 11,829 cases, accounting for 25.8% of the cases across the country. It was followed by Rajasthan (6,794 cases; 14.8 per cent) and Bihar (6,544; 14.2 per cent). However, the rate of such cases was highest in Rajasthan at 55.6 (per lakh population), followed by MP (46.7) and Bihar (39.5).
Rajasthan also had the highest number of rapes against Dalit women (554), followed by UP (537) and MP (510). The rate of rape against Dalit women was highest in Kerala at 4.6 (per lakh population), followed by MP (4.5) and Rajasthan (4.5).