AHMEDABAD: There is a significant disparity between the numbers of Gujarat and the Central government on crimes against women in the state. According to the statistics presented by the Central government on July 25 in the Lok Sabha, 2,633 rape cases were reported in Gujarat between 2017 and 2021 and the number of gang rape and murder cases was 31 in the same period.
However, the Gujarat government in the state assembly on March 10 last year said that there were 3,796 rape cases and 61 gang-rape cases in the state in just two years, i.e. 2020 and 2021. Gujarat Congress, the opposition party in the state, in a press conference in Ahmedabad on Wednesday accused the BJP government of attempting to conceal the number of crimes against women.
Gujarat Congress spokesperson Parthivaraj Kathwadia said the state on March 10, 2022, had given the statistics in Gujarat Assembly on rape in the previous two years, i.e., 2020 and 2021, and claimed that in two years there have been 3,796 cases of rape in Gujarat and 61 incidents of gang-rape.
“However, on July 25, 2023, according to Central government figures submitted in the Lok Sabha, 2,633 rape instances happened in Gujarat between 2017 and 2021, whereas just 31 gang-rape incidents occurred. Thus, if the BJP administration in Gujarat says over 3,000 rape instances were reported in two years, how could the BJP government at the Centre reduce rape data during a five-year period?
Another Congress spokesperson Hiren Banker said there is a disparity in the statistics of missing women. “The BJP government is hiding the actual statistics of missing women. The data of 41,621 missing women in Gujarat were, publicised in the news media, between 2016 and 2020, following which the Gujarat Police said 94.90 per cent were returned.”
However, according to statistics provided by the Home Ministry in Parliament on August 1, 2023, as many as 4,984 women are still missing in the year 2020, indicating that the BJP administration is concealing the number of women missing in Gujarat.