Delhi is the most unsafe metropolitan city for women in the country, recording on an average three rape cases daily, according to the annual report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).
The Crime in India Report released on Sunday revealed that the city recorded 14,158 incidents of crime against women in 2022, the highest number among 19 metropolitan cities for the third consecutive year, with about 186.9 crimes reported for every 1,00,000 women.
This included 1,204 rape cases, the NCRB data showed.
The national capital also recorded 3,909 incidents of kidnapping or abduction of women. A total of 129 cases pertaining to dowry deaths were recorded in the city. Delhi reported 4,847 incidents of cruelty by husbands or by their relatives.
According to a senior police officer, in most incidents of rape and assault, the victim and the accused are generally known to each other, which makes it difficult for the police to directly prevent such incident from taking place as the victim refrains from registering a complaint due to various factors.
‘Awareness rising’
“However, we do carry out awareness drives to explain safe and unsafe touch, and what to do when women and girls find themselves in such situations. We have conducted several such sessions at schools and colleges to make policing accessible,” he said.
The officer added that the police have been conducting self-defence training camps for women and efficiently working on converting complaints into FIRs. He also claimed that the increase in cases registered for incidents of crime against women also reflects police efforts to check crime. The number of unreported cases has gone down as more women are registering cases now, he said. According to the latest NCRB data, 7,400 incidents of crime against children were recorded in the city, which included 22 incidents of murder.
Uptick in overall crime
The incidents of crime against senior citizens (aged 60 or above) increased from 1,166 cases in 2021 to 1,313 cases in 2022.
Cases of cyber crime in the city doubled in 2022. From 345 cases in 2021, the number rose to 685 cases in 2022.
A total of 501 incidents of murder were reported in the city. It also recorded 106 cases of human trafficking. At least 492 minor boys were trafficked in Delhi as compared to 113 girls in 2022 — all of whom were recovered, the report said.
