New Delhi: Domestic violence against women is the top gender-related crime, while there has been a marginal increase in rapes as well as overall crime in the country, according to data released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) for 2018.
The data, released Wednesday, also pegged Uttar Pradesh as the most unsafe for women while Madhya Pradesh recorded the most rape cases.
The number of sedition cases have doubled across the country, as compared to 2016, while civilian deaths due to police action, according to the data, have dropped drastically from 786 in 2017 to 112 in 2018.
The NCRB report also names West Bengal, where the ruling Trinamool Congress is battling a BJP onslaught, as the state that recorded the maximum political killings in 2018.
ThePrint takes a look at the highlights of the report.
Crime on the rise
According to the data, a total of 50,74,634 cognisable crimes — 31,32,954 under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and 19,41,680 under Special & Local Laws (SLL) — were registered in 2018.
This, the report states, is a 1.3 per cent rise in registration of cases from 2017 when 50,07,044 cases were recorded. The crime rate per lakh population has, however, come down from 388.6 in 2017 to 383.5 in 2018.
“During 2018, registration of cases under IPC have increased by 2.3 per cent whereas SLL crimes have declined by 0.1 per cent over 2017,” the report says.
A total of 10,40,046 cases of offences “affecting the human body” were registered, which accounted for 33.2 per cent of total IPC crimes during 2018. Of these, hurt (5,30,076 cases) accounted for maximum cases, followed by cases of causing death by negligence (1,44,031 cases), kidnapping and abduction (1,05,734 cases).
UP most unsafe for women, MP records most number of rapes
Uttar Pradesh has been ranked as the worst state for women’s security and Madhya Pradesh as the state where rape is most rampant.
According to the statistics, while UP registered 59,445 cases of crime against women, Madhya Pradesh registered 5,450 rapes, the maximum in 2018.
In all, 3,78,277 cases of crimes against women were reported across the country in 2018.
The report, however, states that there has only been a marginal increase in rape cases to 32,632 in 2018 from 32,559 cases in 2017, while the overall number of crimes against women has risen steadily from 3,22,929 in 2016, 3,45,989 in 2017 to around 3,78,277 in 2018.
Among union territories, Delhi recorded the highest number of rapes at 1,217 in 2018.
The record also shows that domestic violence against women figures as the top category of violence against women in 2018.
Also read: NCRB adds ‘insult’ to crimes against Dalits. And yes, merit argument is an insult
Sedition cases on rise, Jharkhand tops list
The NCRB data shows that the number of sedition cases registered across the country had doubled in two years from 35 in 2016 to 70 in 2018.
In 2017, 51 cases were registered.
Among the states, Jharkhand topped the list after registering 17 cases of sedition, while Assam had the most number of offenders — 27 of them booked in 17 cases.
Jammu and Kashmir also saw a significant rise with 12 cases of sedition registered in the state in 2018 as compared to only one in 2017.
Overall, the data showed a decline in cases registered for offences against the state.
While in 2016, 178 cases were registered, in 2017 the number declined to 160 cases and in 2018 it further dropped to 149 cases.
The data further shows an increase in the cases registered under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and the Official Secrets Act (OSA).
In 2018, 1,182 cases were registered under UAPA as compared to 901 cases in 2017.
Similarly, 40 cases were registered under the OSA in 2018 as compared to 18 cases in 2017.
Looking at the state-wise break up, the highest number of cases under UAPA were registered in Assam (308), followed by Manipur (289), J&K (245) and Jharkhand (137).
In 2017, the maximum number of such cases was registered by Manipur (330), followed by J&K (156) and UP (109).
Under the OSA, Maharashtra registered the highest number of cases (16), followed by UP (7) and Punjab (5) in 2018.
Also read: All 4 convicts of 16 December gang rape will be hanged together in a row — a first in India
West Bengal records maximum political murders
West Bengal has recorded the maximum murders due to political reasons in 2018, the NCRB data shows.
Of the 54 political murders in 2018, 12 were recorded in West Bengal, followed by nine in Bihar and seven in Maharashtra.
The number, however, has declined from last 2017, when 98 such murders were reported.
Farmers suicides
The NCRB data further shows that 10,349 people working in the farm sector committed suicide in 2018. This includes 5,763 farmers/cultivators and 4,586 agricultural labourers. They accounted for 7.7 per cent of the total suicides victims (1,34,516) in the country.
The majority of suicides were reported in Maharashtra (17,972) followed by Tamil Nadu (13,896), West Bengal (13,255), Madhya Pradesh (11,775) and Karnataka (11,561).
According to the report, Bihar, Odisha, Uttarakhand, Meghalaya, Goa, Chandigarh, Daman & Diu, Delhi UT, Lakshadweep and Puducherry reported zero suicides of farmers as well as agricultural labourers.
The data for 2017 was not made public by the NCRB.
Most civilians killed due to police action in J&K
The number of civilians killed in police action has come down drastically from 786 deaths in 2017 to 112 in 2018.
The data also shows that in 2018, of the 112 civilians killed, the majority (36) were killed accidentally in police operations or encounters.
Of these 36 killed, 35 civilians were from Jammu and Kashmir alone; the lone other victim was from Delhi.
Among states, the most number of civilian deaths, too were reported from Jammu and Kashmir in 2018 unlike in 2017, when the highest number of deaths were reported from Haryana (431 deaths), followed by Chhattisgarh (51 deaths) and then J&K.
But the deaths have dropped even in J&K from 98 civilians killed in 2017 to 74 deaths in 2018.
Also read: Controversial ex-CBI officer Rakesh Asthana is top contender for Delhi Police chief post
Goverment should take strong actions against Domestic Violence, Rape and also false allegations regarding this issue…..Media and Citizens should keep it mind that Crime has no Gender.