Why in news?

The National Crime Records Bureau has released its latest report on the data for the year 2016.

What are the highlights?

• Children - There is an overall increase in crimes against children.
• The all-India rate for crimes against children stood at 24.
• The rate of crimes against children was the highest in Delhi, followed by Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh.
• Among cities, Delhi and Mumbai accounted for a major chunk of the offences against children.
• Particularly, the year 2016 has registered a sharp spike (of nearly 80% compared to 2015) in cases of rape against children.
• The highest rise in numbers has been registered in Uttar Pradesh where the figures have tripled.
• Notably, this is for the first time that such a sharp increase in sexual assaults on children has been registered.
• The most numbers of rape cases under IPC and POCSO were reported in Maharashtra, Odisha, MP, UP, and Tamil Nadu; the latter three have registered very high increases compared to last year.
• Women - The year 2016 has registered an overall rise of about 3% in crimes against women.
• Strikingly, incidents of rape against women have risen far more sharply than other crimes against women, recording a rise of about 12%.
• The highest number of rapes has been reported from MP, UP and Maharashtra.
• The majority of cases categorised as crimes against women were reported under ‘Cruelty by husband or his relatives’.
• West Bengal, Rajasthan and UP have reported the highest number of incidents of ‘cruelty by husband’.
• Other crimes include Assault on woman with intent to outrage her modesty, Kidnapping and abduction, Rape, Voyeurism, Stalking, etc.
• In terms of rate of crime against women Delhi reported the highest compared to the national average rate.
• It is followed by Assam, Odisha, Telangana and Rajasthan.
• Among cities, Delhi topped the charts again, followed by Lucknow, Jaipur, Patna and newly, Nagpur.
• Dalits - Data on crimes against Dalits draws a distinct pattern of similarity between rural and urban spaces.
• This breaks the prevalent notion of blurring caste lines in urban spaces.
• City-wise data on atrocities against Dalits shows that a major chunk of crimes against Dalits involves the violation of women.
• Uttar Pradesh has recorded the highest number of crimes against women among dalits.
• It was highlighted that crimes against Dalits were not solely registered under sections of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
• Cases are categorised and registered under the usual Indian Penal Code, denying the rights offered under exclusive legal mechanisms.
• Coimbatore (TN), Kolkata and Chennai have witnessed the least number of cases of caste atrocities in 2016.
• Kanpur, Ahmedabad, Ghaziabad were, however, in the top ten cities where the maximum number of caste atrocities were registered.
• Lucknow has witnessed a fourfold increase in instances of crimes against Dalits since 2014.

Quick Facts

NCRB

• National Crime Records Bureau is an attached office of the Ministry of Home Affairs.
• It was established in 1986 with a mandate to empower Indian Police with information technology solutions and criminal intelligence.
• It must be noted that the NCRB figures merely reflect the number of crimes registered by the police.
• These may or may not reflect the actual situation on the ground as generally well-policed states have a high crime rate as the police ensures the registry of all cases.

Rate of crime

• It calculates incidents per one lakh people of the population.
• Thus it is a better determinant for the prevalence of a crime in a particular region.

Source: Indian Express