More Delhiites Held For Rapes Than Migrants, Shows Delhi Police Data

Crime data collated by the Delhi Police have busted some myths about rapes committed in Delhi. While the general perception is that the increasing number of people who shift to the capital are to blame for the rising number of rape cases, the latest Delhi Police crime data reveals that 80% of the men caught by the police for their involvement are from the city.

The report shows that about half of the victims are children, some of them as young as two years old. Also, some of the accused are below the age of 18.

A 22-month analysis done by the Hindustan Times reveals that of the 3,973 women raped in nearly two years -- 2015 and till October 15, 2016 -- 1,715 were girls. A total of 3,757 men were accused of rape, of which 250 were teenage boys. It is also shocking to note that 227 girls who were raped were below the age of seven.

The numbers revealed by the Delhi police show that a major percentage of the accused rapists are either school dropouts or illiterate and only 2 per cent of these men actually have a college degree or a post-graduate degree.

Also read: Delhi Police Fetes Women Trained In Self-Defence

The concern over rape grew especially after the Nirbhaya gangrape that took place on 16 December, 2012. It has been five years since then, yet not much improvement has taken place in terms of safety in the capital. The only positive change that has been seen is that more women feel empowered enough to report incidents of rape. This has led to the growth in number of reports every year since 2012 when the NCRB report claimed that 706 rape cases took place in that year. The number shot up to 2,155 in 2016.

Delhi Police is taking many efforts to analyze the issue as to why so many rapes continue to happen in the city. They have even identified dark spots and launched an initiative to install CCTV cameras in all the dark spots.

Picture credit- Rediff