The State of Haryana, known for its skewed sex ratio and rigid patriarchal order, has witnessed spurt in crime against women despite the Manohar Lal Khattar Government’s claims of making the State safe for the fairer sex.
Not only this, all-women police stations set up in Haryana have also failed in its fight to combat gender violence.
The State has registered 1,328 cases of rape in the year 2017, which averages to more than three rapes a day.
As many as 770 rape cases were registered till June this year while the number of rape cases registered was 1,079 in 2016, according to the data tabled in Haryana Assembly by the State Government during the ongoing monsoon session on Monday.
The data for crime in the State draw a sorry picture of women in Haryana. The cases of rape, molestation, dowry harassment and kidnapping of women and girls have witnessed a sharp increase in past three years in the state.
The data revealed that 9082 cases of these crimes against women were registered in 2016, which increased to 10248 in the year 2017. While 5865 such cases have been registered till June 2018, 6444 cases of such crimes were registered from April to December 2015.
In 2017, a large number of 2141 cases of molestation, 3215 of kidnapping of women and girls, 3320 cases of dowry harassment and 244 dowry deaths have been registered.
In the previous year 2016, registration of molestation cases stood at 1795, kidnapping cases of women and girls were 2634, dowry harassment cases were 3314 and 260 dowry deaths were registered.
But the data gets worse for Gurugram and Faridabad districts. 172 cases of rape, 380 of molestation, 402 of kidnapping, 236 of dowry harassment were registered in millennium city, Gurugram in 2017 while 95 cases of rape, 162 of molestation, 268 of kidnapping, 63 of dowry harassment have been witnessed till June this year.
Similarly in Faridabad, 601 such cases including 90 rape cases, 108 molestation, 234 kidnapping cases have been registered till June 2018 while 1220 cases including 127 rape cases, 208 molestation, 389 kidnapping cases and a high 473 dowry harassment were registered last year. What’s more, even after the creation of all-women police stations in all districts to combat gender violence, the state has failed to bring down crime against women.
As per the government’s data, 8126 cases of rape, molestation, dowry deaths, dowry harassment and kidnapping were registered from September 2014 to August 2015 before the setting up of all-women police stations in Haryana.
As many as 8724 cases of such crimes from September 2015-August 2016,
9986 cases from Sept 2016- August 2017 and 10325 cases from Sept 2017 to till date have been registered after the all-women police stations were established in 2015 in all districts of Haryana.
Ironically, Haryana was chosen by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to launch his ambitious ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ project in 2015, with a great pomp and show.
According to the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) 2016 report, the rape rate in Haryana is 9.4 against the national average of 6.1. Haryana has also earned the dubious distinction of topping the country in the number of gang rapes. A total of 191 gang rapes took place in the state in 2016, or one every two days, as per NCRB 2016 report.
Earlier this year, the incidents of brutal rape and murders in Haryana had shocked the entire country and also, put the BJP led Haryana Government under tremendous pressure over the issue of women safety.
Amid mounting public anger over crimes against women in the state, Haryana Government had recently announced to debar the accused in rape and eve-teasing cases from getting government facilities except ration. In case, the accused is convicted and sentenced, he would not be eligible for facilities such as old age pension, pension for the physically disabled persons, driving and arm licenses in the state.
The Chief Minister Manohar Lal had recently also announced a time frame for police officers to complete the investigation into a rape case in one month and in eve-teasing within 15 days.
The State Government will also implement a “state action plan on sexual and gender based violence” which proposes developing a module to teach reproductive health and sex education as part of compulsory school curriculum, increase posting of female teachers in schools, initiate a policy dialogue with Transport Department to address sexual harassment in all modes of transport, among other initiatives in a bid to ensure a violence free environment for women and children in the state.