'Cruelty By Husband' Accounts Majority Of Crimes Against Women, Says NCRB

Crimes against women in India went up by 4% last year as compared to 2021, revealed the newly released Crime In India report by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). The report was released on December 3, the same day as the election results in four States of India. The report shows that 4,45,256 cases of crimes against women were reported last year and that most were perpetrated by their spouses or in-laws. The report also shows an increase in the number of cases of crimes reported against children, Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and cyber crimes.

The NCRB report revealed that a majority of the crimes against women were registered as 'cruelty by husband or his relatives', with 31.4% cases reported under this category, followed by 'Kidnapping and abduction of women' at 19.2%, 'Assault on women with intent to outrage' at 18.7%, and 7.1% of rape cases.

Women's Safety At Stake

The number of crimes against women was 4,28,278 in 2021, showing an increase of over 20,000 more cases this year. The NCRB decoded the rate of crimes reported per 1 lakh people in each State in India. The five states with the highest crime rates were Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, West Bengal, and Madhya Pradesh.

Rajasthan reported 115 crimes against women, per 1 lakh people. Madhya Pradesh reported 78.8 crimes per 1 lakh people. Followed by Maharashtra with 75.1 cases reported per 1 lakh people, West Bengal with 71.8 cases reported per 1 lakh people, and finally Uttar Pradesh with 58.6 cases per 1 lakh people. It is to be noted that Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh recently underwent elections, where women-centric schemes took the spotlight during the campaigns.

Delhi, has once again, been declared the most unsafe city for women, with 14,158 cases of crimes against women reported this year. The rate of crimes per 1 lakh women is 186.9. The NCRB data revealed that the cases of crimes against women in Delhi accounted for 31.2% of total crimes, with almost double the higher crime rate than most other Indian cities. Following the national capital were Mumbai with 6,176 cases and Bengaluru with 3,924 cases. 

Rape Cases

A total of 31,516 rape cases were recorded in 2022 in India, with most of them from Rajasthan, 5,399 cases of rape were reported in Rajasthan, followed by 3,690 cases in Uttar Pradesh, 3,029 cases in Madhya Pradesh, 2,904 cases in Maharashtra, and 1,787 cases in Haryana.

The NCRB report also stated that under the category of ‘Murder with rape/gangrape’, Uttar Pradesh topped the list again with 62 such registered cases, followed by Madhya Pradesh at 41. The NCRB revealed that close to 51 FIRs are filed every hour for crimes against women in India.