Pratisandhi

By Avni Gupta

Crimes Against Women

According to the recent NCRB report, almost 90 women were raped every day in India. With almost 34,000 rape cases, most victims belonged to the age group of 18 to 30 years. 

In 94 out of 100 cases, the offenders were known to the victims and almost 28% of cases were registered under ‘cruelty by husband or his relatives’.

Uttar Pradesh stood as the most unsafe state for women and Madhya Pradesh was reported to have the highest number of rape cases.

A 30% increase in sexual abuse cases at shelter homes was observed in the report. From a total of 707 incidents, the highest number of reports were from Uttar Pradesh (288), followed by Maharashtra (161). 

730 cases of sexual harassment in public transports were reported by women and 401 cases were filed as harassment in workplaces. NCRB recorded more than 18,000 cases of sexual assault on women in “other places”.

Crimes Against Children

The overall crime against children was found to include 1,41,764 cases in the year 2018. 

According to the 2018 report, 109 children were abused every day in our country. This crime has experienced a hike of 22% from 2017. Every fourth rape victim was found to be a minor.

A total of 21,605 rape cases amongst children were reported – of which 204 were rapes of boys. Child rapes were found to be prevalent in the states of Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu.

Sexual Harassment and Sports

Data through reports has revealed that in the last decade, at least 45 complaints of sexual abuse were reported at government run sports institutes. In most cases, the accused were let off leniently or investigations into complaints have dragged on for years without any resolutions so far.

 There have been cases where the victims have filed a FIR against their coaches for groping them, however later withdrew the complaint. The accused trainers are often transferred to a different academy after investigation by the Sports Authority of India. 

Majority of the cases go unreported and the actual number must be much higher than in records. The complaints are not restricted to any sport – but they are common in physical contact sports. In sports, coaches have the power to make or break their careers, which results in withdrawal of complaints.

Turn a Blind Eye

Marital rape is not considered as a sexual offense in our country. Moreover, only for the past two years, rape with murder has been reported a crime. Previously, it was included as ‘murder’, owing to its more heinous nature.

Rape is not considered as a gender-neutral crime by the legal system of our country, which leads to negligence of sexual assault against men. Cases against men go unreported in India and they are often the silent victims.

All Things Considered 

NCRB reports may be misleading as many FIRs are not registered by the police. According to a report, UP was found to have lesser crimes than Kerala. In Kerala, however, the experience of the citizens was good with law and order – as most cases got registered as they were. Hence, it is unfair to term a state as ‘rape capital’. 

Delhi has among the highest rates of crime against women which may be because the police have begun registering cases. Overall crime rate has been falling in the country, but the rate of crime against women and children has been on the rise, which could be because police are now more sensitive and hence registering FIRs more proactively.

Author

3 thoughts on “NCRB Report and Sexual Crimes in India”

  1. Crime against men in india what is the rate are?
    Eg. domestic violence against men,
    sexual crime against men in india

  2. gagan Shrivastava

    Hello, thank you for this report, I am a theatre practitioner and a filmmaker and I have made a short film on a rape victim, and I wanted to include the data which shows unreported rape cases too due to lack of family support. It will be very helpful if you could share any research you have while writing this article. Thank you in advance

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published.

Browse by Category