In 2012 a gangrape in Delhi shook the nation, triggering unprecedented public outcry and forcing the powers that be to sit up, take notice and act. However, stringent changes in the law and setting up of fast track courts that followed have not been able to bring down the number of rape and sexual harassment cases, but reporting of such incidents has increased manifold.
The annual crime data of 2015 released by Delhi Police has revealed that rape incidents have increased up to 2,095 in 2015 from 706 in 2012. However, the figure stood at 1,636 in 2013 and 2,166 in 2014. Similarly, 5,192 cases of molestation of women were reported this year in comparison to 727 in 2012. 3,515 and 4322 molestation cases were registered in year 2013 and 2014 respectively.
The Delhi Police data has also analysed the relationship between the rape victim and the accused. It stated that 38.94 per cent, the maximum, of accused were friends or family friends of the victim; 16.47 per cent were neighbours and 14.08 per cent were relatives. The similar figure stood at 2.10 per cent for employers and co-workers who had committed heinous crime like rape. The data further reveals that 86.73 per cent rape incidents took place within houses/jhuggis while 3.29 per cent took place in a hotel or restaurant. Furthermore, even maximum molesters resorted to attacking women and girls while they were in their houses and jhuggis followed by 39.25 per cent of molestation committed on roads and 4.06 per cent inside malls, shops and markets.
The analysis of the profile of the accused reveals that 60.78 per cent of rape accused were ‘poor’ belonging to the lower strata of society, 50.51 per cent were between the age group of 18-25 years and 46.53 per cent of the accused had only studies up to 10th standard.
Stressing on the rising violence against women and castigating the rotten male mindset towards women, Delhi Police Commissioner Bhim Sen Bassi said, “Violence against women is prevalent in every country, be it developed or developing. Irrespective of the number of women increasing in the professional world, the harassment at workplaces can’t go unnoticed. Women always fall prey to perverts.”
However, the Delhi Police appears to have redeemed themselves as according to the data they worked out 1,714 cases of rape out of the total of 2,095 and 3,642 molestation cases were worked out from the total. Yet, the rate of conviction under rape incidents has witnessed a slide as only 34.5 per cent accused have been convicted this year in contrast to 49.3 per cent in 2012. Similarly, rate of conviction of women molesters dripped down to 39.5 per cent in 2014 from 43.4 percent in 2012.
Among serious crime against women under the category of abduction increased to 4,160 in 2015 as compared to 4,027 in 2014 while it stood at 2,210 in 2012. In addition, 119 women died of dowry demands in 2015 while 153 had died in 2014. Similarly, 1,444 cases of eve teasing and 82 cases under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act were registered in 2015. The same figure was 214 cases of eve teasing and 136 under POCSO registered in 2012 and 2013 respectively.