Chandigarh: Haryana has served as the launchpad of the Narendra Modi government’s ambitious ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’ campaign, but crimes against women in the state have registered a massive increase over the last couple of years.
Between 2017 and 2019, the state saw a 39 per cent jump in rape cases — up from 1,248 to 1,734, or five cases a day, Home Minister Anil Vij informed the state assembly Monday in response to a question.
In the same period, Haryana also witnessed a 46 per cent rise in cases of cruelty against women — to 4,868 from 3,326.
The reply came after Congress MLA from Rohtak, Bharat Bhushan Batra, demanded the numbers on major crimes in Haryana on the second day of the ongoing budget session.
Sexual assault cases also increased from 1,018 to 1079 (6 per cent) in the same period.
Gang-rape figures were not included in this reply. Haryana carries the dubious tag of being India’s ‘gang-rape capital’, with the state registering the highest number of such cases in the country, shows National Crime Record Bureau data.
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Other crimes
According to Vij’s reply, cases of dowry deaths showed a minor increase from 244 in 2017 to 248 in 2019.
In other major crimes, the Manohar Lal Khattar-led state showed some improvement.
Dacoity cases in the state were down 22 per cent — from 198 in 2017 to 155 in 2019. The state police also managed to control incidents of abduction — from 4,364, the numbers fell 8 per cent to 4,026.
Incidents of public violence and theft, however, jumped 5 per cent from 23,300 in 2017 to around 24,500.
While the number of attempt to murder cases fell 6 per cent from 956 in 2017 to 900 in 2019, murder cases went up 7 per cent from 1,048 to 1129. The number of robberies in the state also increased from 1,247 to 1,359.
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