Crime against women and children on the rise in Modi’s India

On 16 December 2012, Nirbhaya, a 23-year-old female physiotherapy intern, gang-raped and brutally assaulted by six men in a private bus, was thrown out of the moving vehicle along with her male friend.

People across the country came out on the streets to protest against the government’s inability to check crimes against women. The then opposition party, BJP came up with a slogan that said “bahut hua naari par atyachaar, abki baar Modi sarkar”.

In the 2014, Modi government came into power with many other slogans, and promises. But the government has been a failure in controlling or at least reducing crimes against women and children.

According to the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) data, crime against women saw an increase of 2.9 per cent from 3,29,243 cases in 2015 to 3,38,954 in 2016 while crime against SCs increased 5.5 per cent (from 38,670 cases in 2015 to 40,801 in 2016) and crime against STs by 4.7 per cent (from 6,276 cases from 2015 to 6,568 in 2016).

Major crimes like rape, kidnappings and abduction, crime against women and crime against children increased across the country by 2.6 per cent in 2016 over the previous year, the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) said in its latest report.

Uttar Pradesh saw the highest number of crimes against women with 14.5 per cent (49,262 cases) of the total cases. Delhi reported 33 per cent (13,803 cases of the total 41,761 cases in 19 cities with a population above two million) of total crimes against women, and was followed by Mumbai at 12.3 per cent (5,128 cases).

Overall, rape cases saw an increase of 12.4 per cent from 34,651 cases in the country in 2015 to 38,947 in 2016.

Continuing with his 'question a day' series in the run up to the Gujarat assembly elections, Congress President Rahul Gandhi had asked his fifth question to Prime Minister Modi, raising concerns over safety, health, education and crimes against women the state.

Citing records, Rahul had pointed out that Gujarat ranked third in human trafficking, fifth in acid attacks on women and 10th in rape of minor girls.

“The women got neither safety, nor education or nutrition, but only exploitation. From Anganwadi to ASHA workers, everyone was disappointed.

Only promises were made to the women of Gujarat and it was never their intention to fulfill them,” he said on Twitter.

The crimes against children in India have also increased by almost 300 per cent in a span of six years since 2009, National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) Chairperson Stuti Kacker said a multi-sectoral action plan is needed to combat child trafficking.

“The National Crime Record Bureau suggests that there is a rise in crime against children since 2009. The number of incidents rose from 24,203 in 2009 to 92,172 in 2015, resulting a increase of almost 300 percent in a span of six years,” Kacker said in a written statement read out in absentia at the 'Anti-Human Trafficking' conference organised by Kolkata Mary Ward Social Centre.

“The deeper analysis shows that in crime rate a substantial increase has taken place between 2009 and 2015 due to marriage of minor girls, kidnapping and abduction and selling of minors for prostitution,” she said.

Kacker also revealed that the number of trafficking victims among children have also significantly increased in recent years.

“NCRB data suggest that a total of 9,104 children were trafficked in 2015 which is a 27 percent increase over 2014. This includes both trafficking within the country and cross border trafficking. The estimate indicates that over 60 per cent of total human trafficking is of the children,” she said.

The need of the hour is to make women and children safe in India, The country needs an action plan to address issues like poverty, unemployment and economic and gender disparity that are major reasons of any form of human trafficking, added Kacker.

with inputs from IANS