Crimes Against Women: Delhi vs Rest Of India, A Reality Check!

On January 1, a horrific accident took place in New Delhi. A 20-year old woman was dragged by a car for about an hour. She succumbed to her injuries soon after. Although the initial post-mortem report and police have pointed out that it was merely an accident, eyewitnesses have pointed out that the men driving knew about the body of the woman stuck below the car.

Only developments will tell if it was an accident or a case of gender-based violence. However, we cannot deny the reports that lately, most headlines point to the fact that crimes against women have been rising in India as well as in the capital.

Whether we consider the data of the last year or decade, we stand by our claims. In fact, pandemics and natural disasters in the last few years have also contributed to the rise in gender-based violence all around the world.

Crimes Against Women In Delhi

In May 2022, a young woman was murdered and cut into pieces by her live-in partner. The case got highlighted only in November 2022 when her loved ones filed a complaint under missing persons.

The case became big, media houses started running it 24*7 with graphics. They showed the culprit going to the jungles with police to retrieve the buried body parts of Sharddha Walkar. It led to the domino effect, and many such cases started making headlines around the country.

The Nirbhaya case of 2012 in which a woman was gang-raped in a moving bus on the night of December 16. This was despite the fact that she was travelling with a friend who was thrashed and left on the roadside naked along with the woman.

The culprits not only raped her but also injured her private parts by inserting foreign objects.

According to the 2021 report of the National Crime Record Bureau, Delhi topped the list of metropolitan cities with cruelty against women. About 4,674 instances of crimes against women by relatives were registered. The cases amounted to a 41% rise in cruelty against women.

In 2020, 1,250 rape cases were registered in comparison to 2,076 in 2021. We are still waiting for the figure for 2022. Other cases included assault on women with intent to outrage modesty (2,068), kidnapping and abduction (4,083), dowry deaths (141) and women-centric cybercrimes (104).

To pacify people, Delhi Police PRO Suman Nalwa was quoted saying that the rise in cases was because more and more women were coming forward to register their complaints. She also pointed out that more measures were being taken to curb such instances.

Sadly that does not seem to be the case. In 2022 alone, the National Commission of Women (NCW) received 3,004 complaints highlighting gender-based violence.

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Crimes Against Women In India

New Delhi being the capital of India is only the tip of the iceberg when we talk about crimes against women. In 2021, India reported more than 30,000 rape cases. There might be many such countries, but India is infamous because of the way victims and survivors are treated and stigmatised in society.

In 2002, about 11 men gang-raped a Muslim woman, Bilkis Bano, and they all were prematurely released in 2022 on the grounds of good behaviour.

Her advocate, Shobha Gupta, said that it was a hate crime. “A pregnant woman was raped, her baby was murdered, her mother was raped, sister was raped, cousins and two minor brothers were murdered.” Yet they walked free. Would it not encourage other criminals if they know that they can walk free on the grounds of good behaviour no matter what crime they commit?

The National Commission of Women said that it received the highest number of complaints, 30, 957. Of all those, 6,970 were cases registered under domestic violence, 9,170 were related to the right to live with dignity and 4,600 were dowry cases. Uttar Pradesh topped the list of states from where crimes against women are high in numbers.

This is when everything returned to normalcy. During the pandemic, the situation was the worst. Between February and May 2020, India registered a rise of 2.5 times in domestic violence cases.

According to the NCW, thousands of complaints were registered for child marriage, domestic violence, human trafficking and cyber violence. From April to May alone, the organisation received 25,886 complaints for crimes against women.

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During the lockdown, more and more victims were forced to live with their abusers. The country along with its capital seems to be moving backwards when it comes to the security and safety of women and minorities. The legislation and judiciary must take strict measures to curb cruelty against women, it is high time now.