Crimes Against Women Increased By 83% Over Last Ten Years, Says NCRB

Are women in India today less safe than they were 10 years ago?

The NCRB data says so — crimes against women have recorded a whopping 83% increase from 2007 to 2016.

Note the word “recorded”. Registering crimes against women, especially sexual crimes, is notoriously anathema to police in our country. The rise in figures also means that more women are reporting crimes now than they were 10 years ago.

Meanwhile, the ambit of ‘crime against women’ under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) has been expanded—after the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act 2013 was passed—to take cognizance of crimes that were not considered earlier. For example, acid attack was not a crime in 2007.

But while crimes have risen, the rate of convictions remains disheartening.

So what are the crimes against women?

The 2016 report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) covers 13 broad heads, some of which are further subdivided.

The listed crimes include Rape, Dowry Deaths, Acid Attack, Kidnapping and Abduction, Cruelty by Husband or his Relatives, and Assault on Women with Intent to Outrage her Modesty, among others.

So where do we stand now, compared to 10 years ago?

The total crime rate—number of crimes per one lakh of the population—against women has gone up from 16.3 in 2007 to 53 in 2016.

Rapes have risen by 88% since 2007, in terms of incidences, while the crime rate has spiked from 1.8 to 6.3.

Crimes under the category of ‘Assault on Women with Intent to Outrage her Modesty’ have seen a 119% increase. This category, covered under Section 354, was expanded in 2013 to include four new crimes.

These crimes are Sexual Harrassment (Sec 354A), Assault or Use of Criminal Force to Women with Intent to Disrobe (Sec 354 B), Voyeurism (Sec 354C) and Stalking (Sec 354D).

Back in 2007, the rate of crimes recorded under Section 354 was 3.4, which rose to 13.8 in 2016.

Meanwhile, there has been a 45% rise in incidences of ‘Cruelty by Husband or his Relatives’ (Sec 498A).

What about convictions?

Well, the rate of conviction has gone up — but not nearly enough to take heart from, given the abysmally low rates of conviction even until 10 years ago.

Would you believe that even in 2007, the total rate of convictions by courts in all crimes against women was a negligible 4.2?

In 2016, the rate of convictions is 18.9 — less than 1 in 5 of the perpetrators who commit any kind of crime against women in India are convicted, if and when they are taken to court.

Among the rape accused, the conviction rate rose from 4.7 to 25.5 — one-fourth of the men accused of rape are convicted. So, there is a three-fourth chance that a woman who reports rape and takes her rapist to court will not get justice.

The conviction rate in cases of ‘cruelty by husband or his relatives’ increased from 2.6 to 12.2 over 10 years.

As for those undergoing trial for committing ‘assault on women with intent to outrage her modesty’, the conviction rate was 3.8 in 2007.

This rate rose to 21.8 — if you assault a woman in our country, pretty much four times out of five you can walk scot-free.