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88 Rapes Every Day in 2019, Says NCRB Report; Conviction Rate Alarmingly Low

Newsclick Report

On Tuesday (29 September), in between the Hathras gang-rape victim succumbing to her injuries at a Delhi hospital and the Uttar Pradesh police cremating her body without letting the family see her, the National Crime Records Bureau released the Crime in India (CII) report for 2019. The report shows, on an average, 88 incidents of rape took place every day in the country,

The report pointed out that the rate of crime against women (crime rate is calculated as crime per one lakh of population) increased from 58.8 in 2018 to 62.4 in 2019. There were 32,033 incidents of rape, with 32,260 victims, and 15.43% of the victims were girls below 18 years of age. The number of rapes saw a decline of only 4% since 2018. During 2019, there were 3,944 attempts of rape on 4,038 victims, out of whom 8.6% were girls below 18 years of age. In 94.16% of the cases, the offender was someone known to the victim. During the year, 286 women were murdered after being raped or gang-raped.

Among the states, the crime rate for rape was highest in Rajasthan, where 5,997 incidents of rape were reported during 2019. At the second place was Uttar Pradesh (3,065 incidents), where a 19-year-old dalit woman from Hathras was the latest victim of rape. Rajasthan and UP were followed by Madhya Pradesh (2,485 incidents), Maharashtra (2,299 incidents), and Kerala (2,023 cases). Delhi topped the list of Union Territories by reporting at 1,253 rape cases.

There were also 3,944 reported attempts to commit rape across the country in 2019, which is a crime under Sections 376 and 511 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The number of similar incidents in the year 2018 was 4,097, and it barely witnessed any decrease.

The number of reported incidents of ‘assault on women with intent to outrage her modesty’, which is a crime under Section 354 of the IPC, was 88,367, and the number of victims was 89,292. This means, every day in 2019, more than 244 women were assaulted with the intention to outrage their modesty. The number of similar incidents reported in 2018 was 89,907.

The number of incidents under Section 509 of the IPC (insult to the modesty of women) barely saw any decrease too. The number of such incidents marginally went down from 6,992 in 2018 to 6,939 in 2019. However, the number of victims went up from 7,035 in 2018, to 7,169 in 2019.

Cases registered under the Protection of Children from Sexual Violence (POCSO) Act that included female victims, accounted for 10.9% of all crimes against women. The total number of cases under POCSO was 44,189–an increase of 13.89% from 2018. With 7,444 cases, Uttar Pradesh accounted for the highest share, followed by Maharashtra (6,402), and Madhya Pradesh (6,053). Delhi accounted for 1,596 cases.

The conviction rate for crimes against women remained alarmingly low. According to the CII report, in 2019, the conviction rate for rape was 27.8%. The conviction rates for assault on women with intent to outrage her modesty, and insult to the modesty of women were 26.9% and 21.8% respectively. The conviction rate for crimes reported under the POCSO act was 34.8%. The total conviction rate for all crimes against women was just 23.7%.

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NCRB Data Says Atrocities Against SCs, STs Increased by 7.3% and 26.5% in 2019

Prudhviraj Rupavath

30 September 2020: Crimes against members of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes communities increased by 7.3% and 26.5% respectively in 2019, according to the latest “Crime in India” 2019 report by the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) which was released on Tuesday. A total of 45,935 cases of crime or atrocities against Dalits and a total of 8,257 cases of crime against tribal people were recorded in the last year.

Uttar Pradesh has the most number of cases of crime against SCs – 11,829 cases, which is 25.8% of the total such cases in the country. It is followed by Rajasthan with 6,794 cases (14.8% of all cases), Bihar (14.2%) and Madhya Pradesh (11.5%).

At 23.2%, Madhya Pradesh had the highest share of crimes against STs. It was followed by Rajasthan (21.8% of all cases) and Uttar Pradesh (8.7%).

According to a report, cases of atrocities against Dalits and Adivasis recorded under Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 (PoA Act) have increased by 281.75% and 575.33%, respectively between 2009 and 2018.

The manner of implementation of the PoA Act has been a major concern among Adivasis and Dalit communities. Accroding to a status report on the implementation of PoA Act, released by National Dalit Movement for Justice (NDMJ), over the decade prior to 2018, the average conviction rate under PoA Act for cases of atrocities against dalits and adivasis remained at 25.2% and 22.8% respectively.

In a worrying trend, a total of 3,375 cases of assault against women (both adults and children) from SC communities with an intent to outrage modesty have been registered under PoA Act.

Rajasthan had the highest number of rapes against Dalit women (554), followed by Uttar Pradesh (537) and Madhya Pradesh (510).

The report stated: “A total of 51,56,172 cognisable crimes comprising 32,25,701 Indian Penal Code (IPC) crimes and 19,30,471 Special & Local Laws (SLL) crimes were registered in 2019. It shows an increase of 1.6% in registration of cases over 2018 (50,74,635 cases). Crime rate registered per lakh population has increased marginally from 383.5 in 2018 to 385.5 in 2019.”

(Courtesy: Newsclick.)

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Another article by Devyani Srivastava, “Rape Cases Against Scheduled Caste Women Rose 37% In Last 4 Years”, adds (extract):

As controversy and anger over the alleged gang-rape of a Dalit woman by Thakur men in Hathras in Uttar Pradesh continue to smoulder, the latest crime data show that the state recorded the highest increase in crime against women, at 66.7%, in four years to 2019.

Across the country, cases of rape against Scheduled Castes women increased by 37%, and of assault by 20%, our analysis of data from Crime in India 2019 report released on September 29 and previous years’ data shows.

Overall, crime against women (CAW) increased by 23.3% and crime against the Scheduled Castes by 18.8%. This dwarfed the 9.5% increase in total cognisable crimes (relatively serious offences under the Indian Penal Code and other special laws) reported in the same period.

Although more crimes against women and against the SCs were reported, the investigation and prosecution of these cases was tardier than other categories’. By the end of 2019, investigation was pending in a higher proportion of crimes against women–33.8%, as compared to 29.3% of all cognisable IPC crimes. Trial had been completed in only 7.6% cases of crimes against women.

For crimes against the Scheduled Castes, this figure was 6.1% and for crimes against the Scheduled Tribes, 8.4%.

Of these, 60% or more cases had led to an acquittal.

[Devyani Srivastava works for the police reforms programme at the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI). Courtesy: Business Standard.]