New Delhi: Uttar Pradesh topped the list of states with most number of crimes against women, according to the annual report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) for 2017. Assam, on the other hand, registered the highest total rate of crime against women.
Not surprisingly, Delhi lived up to its reputation of being the city with the highest number of crimes against women. Lucknow topped the charts with the highest total rate of crime.
India registered a 6.16% rise in crimes against women in 2017 when compared to 2016. According to the annual report, delayed by a year, there were 3,59,849 crimes against women in 2017, while the number was 3,38,954 a year before. Charges were filed in 2,44,382 of these cases, the data revealed.
A total of 32,559 cases of rape were recorded across India of which 10,221 involved minor victims. With 5,562 cases, the highest number of rape incidents were registered in Madhya Pradesh.
Assam Most Unsafe State
According to the report, 19 states recorded an upsurge in crimes against women with Assam topping the list. For every one lakh women in the state, 144 of them had to face crimes in 2017. A total of 1,772 cases of rape were reported in the state.
Uttar Pradesh registered the highest number of crimes against women (56,011) contributing to 15.6% of total crimes against women in India. The number was 49,262 in 2016.
Lucknow Most Unsafe City
In a surprise revelation, Lucknow emerged as the most unsafe city for women. For every one lakh women, 178 of them were on the receiving end of crimes in the city in 2017.
Delhi followed at a close second in terms of the rate of crimes. The number of crimes in the national capital was a whopping 11,542. Despite being the highest, the number of crimes against women in Delhi has actually registered a downward trend.
In 2015, there were 14,766 crimes against women, while a year later, the number stood at 13,803 before reducing further in 2017. In terms of number of crimes, Mumbai followed Delhi with 5,453 cases and Bengaluru with 3,565.
States With Highest Number of Sexual Crimes
With 5,562 cases, the highest number of rape incidents were reported from Madhya Pradesh of which 3,082 victims were minor. Uttar Pradesh has the second highest number of cases at 4,246 with 1,560 minor victims.
Rajasthan and Odisha followed with 3,305 and 2,070 cases of rape, respectively. They are followed by Kerala, Maharashtra, Chhatisgarh and Assam.
The data also revealed that in 93.1% (30,299) of the rape cases, the offender was known to the victim or her family.
Safest States
The lowest rate of crimes against women was in Nagaland where seven women had to face crimes for every one lakh of them. Nagaland recorded the lowest number of rapes in 2017 with 10 reported cases, followed by Sikkim (17) and Mizoram (25).
States That Saw Decrease in Crimes Against Women
Despite a high rate of crimes against women (73.3 per one lakh woman), Rajasthan also recorded a considerable drop in crimes against women from 27,422 cases in 2016 to 25,993 in 2017.
West Bengal, too, saw crimes against women reducing with the number falling from 32,513 to 30,992 during the same period.
In Gujarat, the number fell from 8,532 in 2016 to 8,133 in 2017. A similar trend was also noticed in Karnataka — 14,078 cases in 2017 as compared to 14,131 cases a year before.
The northeastern states of Manipur, Meghalaya, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram also recorded minor reduction in numbers. In Punjab, the number fell from 5,105 in 2016 to 4,620 in 2017.
Union Territories
A total of 1,322 cases of rape were recorded across all union territories in India of which 1,229 were in Delhi UT, while Chandigarh had 65 cases. At 45, Chandigarh also had the highest number of minor rape victims.