Crime against women rose by 15.3% in 2021: NCRB

Source: The post is based on the article “Crime against women rose by 15.3% in 2021: NCRB” published in Indian Express on 30th August 2022.

What is the News?

National Crime Records Bureau(NCRB) has released a report titled “Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India” and “Crime in India(CII)” report 2021.

What are the key highlights from Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India Report?

Suicides in 2021: At 120 deaths per million population, 2021 saw the highest rate of deaths from suicide since 1967, the earliest year for which this data is available. 

– The second highest rate of suicide ever reported in the country was in 2010, when it was 113.5 deaths per million population.

– This highlights the impact the pandemic appears to have made on the emotional well-being of Indians.

Statewise: For the third consecutive year, Maharashtra topped the country in terms of the number of suicides reported in 2021.

Category wise: The daily wage earners remained the largest profession-wise group among suicide victims in 2021, accounting for 25.6%.

– The fastest increase in deaths by suicide was observed among students and small entrepreneurs supporting anecdotal accounts of prolonged stress induced by the pandemic.

What are the key highlights from Crime in India(CII) Report 2021?

Crime against women: Cases of crime against women rose to 15.3% from 2020.The crime rate registered per lakh women population is 64.5 in 2021 compared with 56.5 in 2020.

– A majority of cases under IPC were registered for ‘cruelty by husband or relatives’ (31.8%) followed by molestation (20.8%), kidnapping (17.6%) and rape (7.4%).

– Uttar Pradesh recorded the highest number of crimes against women from states while among the metropolitan cities, Delhi reported the highest number of cases.

– Nagaland stood out with the lowest number of crimes against women registered in the past three years.

– The highest rate of crime against women in 2021 was registered in Assam (168.3%).

Conviction rate in rape cases: The conviction rate in rape cases across India remained abysmally low at 24.8% in 2021 with only 156 cases convicted and around 22,313 cases currently under trial.

Note: According to NCRB data, rape-murders make up less than 1 per cent of the total rapes in the country annually. I

Domestic Violence Act: Only 507 cases were registered in the country under the Domestic Violence Act in 2021 — 0.1 per cent of the total cases of crime against women. The highest number of cases (270) were filed in Kerala.

Dowry Deaths: Around 6,589 cases of dowry deaths were registered last year with the highest number of such deaths registered in UP and Bihar.