KOCHI: Kerala continues to be an unsafe place for women, despite various awareness campaigns and the much-hyped ‘Nirbhaya’ scheme launched by the Home Department, as is evident from the statistics of the crimes against women.
A total of 13,880 cases of crimes against women were registered in the State in 2014, showing an increase from the previous year when the number of crimes was 13,738. Thiruvananthapuram Rural tops the list of rape cases, while Malappuram tops the list of cases related to cruelty towards women by husbands and relatives.
As per statistics available with the State Crime Records Bureau, 120 rape cases were registered in Thiruvananthapuram Rural in 2014. In Malappuram, 590 cases of cruelty by husbands and relatives were registered last year. With 101 cases, Malappuram stands second in the number of rape cases. Thrissur Rural follows Malappuram in the number of cases of cruelty by husbands and relatives (454 cases). In molestation and dowry death cases also Thiruvanannthapuram Rural stands first, with 580 and five cases, respectively.
In Palakkad, five dowry death cases were registered in 2014. The district had the highest number of kidnapping cases (18). In molestation cases, Malappuram was in the second place, with 346 cases.
With 16 cases, Kollam Rural came second in the number of kidnapping cases.
A total of 38 cases of eve-teasing were recorded in Ernakulam Rural, making it the number one in that category. With 22 cases, Thrissur came second in eve-teasing.
In both the years, no dowry death case was recorded in Malappuram. In ‘other offences’ also Malappuram topped the list, with 407 cases, followed by Kannur with 329 cases. A total of 1,457 cases were recorded in Malappuram - the highest number- in 2014, while Thiruvananthapuram Rural came second with 1,255 cases.
In 2013 also Thiruvananthapuram was in the number one position as far as rape, dowry deaths and molestation cases are considered, with 129, six and 640 cases, respectively. Malappuram was second in rape crimes with 99 cases. Thiruvananthapuram City came in the second place in molestation cases, with 299 cases.
With regard to cases of cruelty by husbands and relatives, Malappuram stood first in 2013 also, with 650 cases. The number of eve-teasing cases was the highest in Kozhikode City in 2013 (44 cases), while the number of other offences were highest in Kannur (345).