CHANDIGARH: Haryana has taken giant steps towards correcting the State’s skewed sex ratio but when it comes to crimes against women, it is still among the worst in the country with the crime rate rising with each passing year.
The State’s dubious distinction was only underlined earlier this week when a CBSE Board examination topper was allegedly gang-raped at a village in Mahendergarh by a group of men she knew.
In yet another chilling reminder of how unsafe women are in the state, a 32-year-old woman head constable of Haryana Police was gang-raped inside an all-woman police station in Palwal.
As per data tabled in the recent monsoon session of the Assembly, rapes, molestations, kidnappings and dowry harassment cases have witnessed a sharp increase in the last three years.
In 2016, 9,082 crimes against women were registered. This climbed to 10, 248 in 2017 and in the first six months of this year, already 5,865 cases have been registered.
The rising graph can be seen in rape cases also. 1,079 cases were registered in 2016, 1,328 in 2017 and in the first half of this year, already 770 rapes have been committed.
As for kidnappings, the figures are 2,634 for 2016, 3,215 for 2017 and 2118 for the first six months this year.
According to the statistics, Gurugram tops the list of crimes against women with 95 cases of rape, 162 cases of molestation, 268 cases of kidnapping, and 63 cases of dowry harassment being registered in Gurugram.
Faridabad is close behind with 90 rapes, 108 cases of molestation and 234 kidnappings having been registered till June, while last year, 127 rapes, 208 cases of molestation, 389 kidnappings and 473 dowry harassment cases were registered.
Asked about the rising cases of sexual violence and crimes against women, Director General of Police BS Sandhu told The Sunday Standard that the increase was partly due to the high registration of cases and also due to setting up of all-women police stations. “There were many false complaints of rape. After investigations, around 20 per cent complaints were found to be frivolous. Also, there have been incidents in which rape complaints were actually honey-trap cases. The police busted 47 such cases this year alone,” he said.