Crimes against women saw a 12.3% spike in 2022: National Crime Records Bureau

Delhi has registered a 4 per cent increase in crimes against women in 2022, versus 2021 figures, according to data released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).

The data also showed a spike of 12.3 per cent across the 19 metro cities in 2022, versus the preceding year.

The report, titled 'Crime in India 2022', is based on data collected from 36 states and Union territories as well as the central agencies. It was released on Friday, 2 December, and made public on Sunday, 3 December.

Crimes against women, children, senior citizens, Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) rose by 4 per cent, 8.7 per cent, 9.3 per cent, 13.1 per cent and 14.3 per cent respectively in 2022, according to the latest National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) annual report.

Of these, crimes against senior citizens numbered 28,545 cases compared to 26,110 cases in 2021. A bulk of these cases (7,805, or 27.3 per cent) involved injury, followed by theft (3,944, or 13.8 per cent), and forgery, cheating and fraud (3,201 or 11.2 per cent).

In terms of types rather than targets, economic offences increased by 11.1 per cent, corruption by 10.5 per cent and cyber crimes by 24.4 per cent in 2022.

Crimes against women

Across cities, the national capital of Delhi led the table with an ignominious record of 14,158 cases of crimes against women, with a 72.4 per cent chargesheet rate. In Mumbai, 6,176 cases of crimes against women were recorded, with a 80.6 per cent chargesheet rate, while Bengaluru recorded 3,924 cases, with a chargesheet rate of 74.2 per cent.

Among the states, Uttar Pradesh registered the highest number of crimes against women under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Special and Local Laws (SLL), with a 75.6 per cent chargesheet rate and 65,743 cases registered in all. Next up, Maharashtra registered 45,331 cases, with a 80.6 per cent chargesheet rate, and Rajasthan recorded 45058 cases, with a low chargesheet rate of 54 per cent.

In the 19 Metropolitan cities with populations above 2 million — Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Coimbatore, Delhi, Ghaziabad, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Kanpur, Kochi, Kolkata, Kozhikode, Lucknow, Mumbai, Nagpur, Patna, Pune and Surat — a total of 48,755 cases of crime against women were registered during 2022, showing an increase of 12.3 per cent over 2021 (43,414 cases).

Across states and Union territories, according to NCRB data in the 70th edition of its annual report, a total of 445,256 cases of crime against women were registered during 2022, showing an increase of 4 per cent over 2021 (428,278 cases).

The majority of cases that were crimes against women were registered under sections of the law dealing with ‘cruelty by husband or his relatives’ (32.6 per cent), followed by ‘kidnapping and abduction of women’ (19.4 per cent) and ‘assault on women with intent to outrage her modesty’ (17.9 per cent). A further 13.2 per cent were crimes against girls, registered under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012.

Crimes against children

The NCRB data also showed a total of 162,449 cases of crimes against children registered across the surveyed states and Union territories during 2022, an increase of 8.7 per cent over 2021's 149,404 cases.

'In percentage terms, major crime heads under "Crime Against Children" during 2021 were kidnapping and abduction (45.7 per cent) and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (39.7 per cent), including child rape. The crime rate registered per lakh children was 36.6 in 2022, in comparison with 33.6 in 2021,' stated the report.

In metropolitan cities, 20,550 cases of crimes against children were registered in 2022, an increase in registration by 7.8 per cent over 2021 (19,055 cases). In percentage terms, the majority of these were kidnapping or abduction (56.3 per cent), followed by the POCSO cases (32.2 per cent).

A total of 30,555 cases were registered across states against juveniles in 2022, a decline of 2 per cent from 2021 (31,170 cases).

It may be noteworthy that the publication of this NCRB report was delayed by at least five months. It is usually made public by July or August annually.