NCW statistics debunk UP govt's claims on crime

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati might persist in her denial but latest official statistics tell the story of women in the state being the favourite targets of all kinds of crime. Delhi too with woman chief minister Sheila Dikshit is a favourite ground for crime against women. Worse, not even a single state has witnessed decline in number of cases against women during 2010-11.

According to latest data furnished by the National Commission for Women (NCW) Uttar Pradesh registered the highest number of crime cases against women followed by Delhi and Rajasthan respectively. These states emerged the worst offenders against women for the second year in a row.

The NCW annual report with statistics updated until February end said UP recorded 6,703 crime cases against women while Delhi recorded 2,188 cases and Rajasthan 1,357.

Delhi has the distinction of nearly doubling of cases of crime against women during 2010-11 as it registered 1,405 cases in 2009-10. Rajasthan, too, witnessed a jump in cases during the year moving up from 884 in 2009-10. The growth in UP, however, is much less with the state recording 6,302 cases in 2009-10.

NCW chairperson Yasmeen Abrar said, “Crime against women is on rise. Major reasons behind it are lack of proper implementation of law. The blame lies at the door of the government machinery.”

NGO groups, however, decry the government statistics. Sunita Thakur, counsellor form Jagori, an NGO for women, said, “Crime against women are rising all over India but only a few states like UP and Delhi are highlighted.”

Indrani Sinha, director, SANLAAP, another women-centric NGO said, “Girls are asked to dress up decently and stay home to be safe, this proves how efficient and capable are the law enforcement agencies”.

NCW data showed that in 2010-2011 14,151 cases were registered out of which 544 (376 in 2009-10) complaints were for rape, 2,944 for domestic violence, 465 for dowry death (357 in 2009-10) and 505 cases were registered for police harassment.

On the other hand, the state-wise data on the number of complaints registered by the NRI Cell of NCW marks Delhi as the lead offender with highest number of complaints (73 complaints) followed by Uttar Pradesh (43 complaints) and Haryana (40 complaints).