The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data for 2020 revealed that a total of 3,71,503 cases of crime against women were registered during the year, showing a decline of 8.3% from 2019, which saw 4,05,326 cases. The decline in the crime rate was attributed to the COVID-19 lockdown enforced from March 25, 2020, to May 31, 2020.
“The country remained under complete lockdown from 25th March, 2020 and 31st May, 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic (first wave), during which time movement in public space was very limited. The cases registered under crimes against women, children and senior citizens, theft, burglary, robbery and dacoity have therefore declined, whereas COVID related enforcement has resulted in an increase of cases registered under 'Disobedience to order duly promulgated by Public Servant (Sec. 188 IPC)', under 'Other IPC Crimes' and under 'Other State Local Acts,'” the report said.
Under crimes against women, the majority of cases were registered under ‘cruelty by husband or his relatives’ (30.0%) followed by ‘assault on women with intent to outrage her modesty’ (23.0%), ‘kidnapping and abduction of women’ (16.8%) and ‘rape’ (7.5%).
Out of the total 48,037 cases of assault against women with intent to outrage her modesty registered across the country, Andhra Pradesh had recorded 2,541 cases. Out of the total of 17,003 cases of sexual harassment, Andhra Pradesh had 1,009 cases. Telangana had 2,520 cases of assault against women and 737 cases of sexual harassment. Kerala recorded 2,353 cases of assault against women and 1,078 cases of sexual harassment.
Among the other southern states, Karnataka recorded 3,246 cases of assault and 446 cases of sexual harassment and Tamil Nadu recorded 701 cases of assault and 115 cases of sexual harassment. Meanwhile, Puducherry recorded 25 cases of assault and zero cases of sexual harassment.
With 7,533 cases at a crime rate of 33.4, Odisha recorded the highest number of cases of assault against women followed by Rajasthan with 6,869 cases, while Haryana had the highest crime rate of sexual harassment with 3,889 cases.
Further, when it came to cases of rape, out of the total 28,046 cases of rape registered in India,1,095 of them were in Andhra Pradesh. The state also recorded 141 cases of attempts to commit rape, whereas Telangana recorded 764 cases of rape, and 35 cases of attempt to rape.
Kerala recorded 637 rape cases and 59 attempts to commit rape cases, Karnataka recorded 504 cases of rape and 11 cases of attempt to rape, Tamil Nadu recorded 389 rape cases and 15 attempts to rape cases. And Puducherry recorded eight cases of rape and zero cases of attempt to rape.
Assam recorded the highest crime rate of rape at 9.7 with 1,657 cases followed by Himachal Pradesh at 9.1 with 331 cases.
Meanwhile, a total of 1,28,531 cases of crime against children were registered, showing a decrease of 13.2% from 2019 (1,48,090 cases). The majority of crimes against children were kidnapping and abduction (42.6%) and cases registered under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (38.8%) including child rape. The crime rate registered per lakh children population was 28.9 in 2020, in comparison with 33.2 in 2019, the report said.
The report also revealed that a total of 24,794 cases were registered for committing crimes against Senior Citizens (aged above 60 years), showing a decrease of 10.8% in registration when compared to 2019 (27,804 cases).