The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data released on Wednesday showed that crimes against women in India declined during the pandemic-hit year of 2020. Nevertheless, the data revealed
that on average, 77 rape cases were reported per day in India, totalling 28,046 such cases.
According to a report by the NCRB which is part of the Union Home Ministry, cases of crime against women in cities fell by 8.3 percent in 2020 compared to 2019. There were 3,71,503 cases
of crime against women in the country last year, down from 4,05,326 in 2019 and 3,78,236 in 2018.
In 2020, Uttar Pradesh had the most cases (49,385) among states and union territories, followed by West Bengal (36,439), Rajasthan (34,535), Maharashtra (31,954), and Madhya Pradesh (25,640).
Rape, outraging modesty, dowry deaths and harassment, acid attacks, and kidnapping are all instances of crimes against women.
Crime figures suggest that in the year 2020, which saw the COVID-19 outbreak and pandemic-induced lockdowns, there were 28,046 cases of rape involving 28,153 victims out of the total cases
of crimes against women in 2020. Adults made up 25,498 of the victims, while crimes against children under the age of 18 were 2,655.
Rajasthan had the most rape cases in 2020 (5,310), followed by Uttar Pradesh (2,769), Madhya Pradesh (2,339), Maharashtra (2,061), and Assam (1,657). According to the data, there were 997
such cases in the national capital Delhi last year.
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Apart from rape, the NCRB data revealed 85,392 cases of "assault to outrage modesty" and 3,741 cases of "attempt to commit rape." The report suggests that the category
"cruelty by husband or relatives" accounted for 1,11,549 of the total crimes against women last year, with 62,300 cases of kidnapping and abduction.
In 2020, 105 acid attacks were reported across the country along with 6,966 dowry fatalities with 7,045 victims, said the data.
According to NCRB data, Delhi had the largest number of crimes against women (9782) among India's 19 major cities in 2020, followed by Mumbai (4,583), Bengaluru (2730), and Lucknow (2636).
The NCRB statistics also revealed that when compared to 19 other metro cities, the rates of crime against women in two Tamil Nadu cities, Coimbatore and Chennai were the lowest.