NEW DELHI: Official crime data with Delhi Police shows that in the past year, there has been a 5.7 per cent increase in the number of non-heinous crimes, which include burglary, house theft, and molestation.
Even though cases of burglary were down by 59.5 per cent, and house theft by 65.8 per cent, the overall number of non-heinous crimes rose in the past one year.
The rate of heinous offences such as dacoity, attempt to murder, and rioting went down, but cases of rape, murder, and abduction were higher than the previous year.
“Delhi Police is working day in and day out for the safety of the citizens. We encourage the registration of crimes and try to work out cases and take action in a time-bound manner,” Delhi Police PRO Madhur Verma said.
Cases of kidnapping for ransom went up 26 per cent in the last one year. This figure had been consistently going down since 2015, but rose this year, with 19 cases being reported, as against 14 last year. The cases involve abduction of both kids and adults.
According to activist Arvind Singh, under-reporting remains a huge issue in the context of missing children, whose cases are registered as cases of abduction under Section 363 of the Indian Penal Code.
“The cases reported and the number of FIRs is much lower than what happens on the ground. Also, it’s important to see how many of the kids who go missing are traced.”
The police recently launched their ‘Police Uncle’ initiative to promote child-friendly policing.
“It is an initiative to tell children that policemen are there to help, and to change the mindset that they will harm them,” PRO Verma said.
He said cases of trafficking of children who are too young to inform others about their address or parents’ phone number were given top priority and looked into swiftly.
Crimes against women rose one per cent, with 12,134 such crimes registered in the last one year. The maximum number of crimes against women were reported under Section 354 (Assault on women) of the Indian Penal Code. Rape cases were up by 0.2 per cent, dowry deaths were up by 14.5 per cent, and cruelty by in-laws by 10.5 per cent.
Shockingly, since the year 2012, when the Nirbhaya gang-rape case shook the entire nation, the number of rape cases has increased by 64.3 per cent. The year 2012 recorded 706 cases of rape. The number kept going up year after year, with 2,199 cases recorded in 2015. The number dropped slightly in the years that followed, but went up again this year.
Verma said that the number had increased because earlier rapes were not being reported due to the taboo around them.
“The number increased after 2012 because there were changes in law after the Nirbhaya case. Also, earlier it was a taboo. The victims were not coming up to speak about it. People have now started reporting. We encourage all incidents to be reported to us.”
Women rights’ activist Shabnam Hashmi, however, feels that the city is becoming more and more unsafe for women.
“All kinds of violence have increased in the last three to four years across the country because there is total impunity—criminals are given protection from the state... we saw what happened in Kathua, where elected representatives of political parties came out in support of a rapist. Rape is being used to terrorise women, and also the community.”
She disagreed that the issue of women’s safety in the capital, till 2012, was about under-reporting of crimes in the previous years.
“Delhi is becoming more and more unsafe for women. It is true that women, to an extent, are coming out. But rape cases were not reported in other big cities also.
Other kinds of harassment have come out a lot more, but the violence has increased,” she said, adding that the solution was equal rights for women.