Murali Krishnan

New Delhi, March 11:

How crime prone is India? Every hour, 25 violent crimes take place in the country while 59 housewives commit suicide every day. And two accidental deaths occur every two minutes across this vast country. The violent crimes include two rapes, four murders, 10 culpable homicides and one dowry death on an hourly basis, say figures compiled by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). A snapshot of the other heinous crimes is also an eye-opener - 17 crimes are committed against a woman every hour, three kidnappings and abductions and five crimes are carried out against a Scheduled Caste/Tribe person, hourly.

In its latest report “Crime in India”, related to 2002, the NCRB states that a total of 5,531,172 cognisable crimes were registered of which 1,780,330 were crimes attracting provisions of the Indian Penal Code. The rest were crimes reported under Special and Local Laws (SLL), which cover 22 heads like gambling, illegal arms possession and prostitution, an increase of 3.5 per cent over the previous year. Interestingly, the union territory of Pondicherry reported the highest crime rate (447.7) for all IPC crimes, 2.6 times the national crime rate of 169.5. It also reported 54 suicides per 100,000 of population as against the national average of 10.6. Kerala reported the highest crime rate followed by Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.

Uttar Pradesh, the country’s most populous state, had the dubious distinction of accounting for 19 per cent of the total of 35,290 murder cases registered for the year. As for crimes against women, Chhattisgarh reported 38.4 per cent of a total of 146,678 cases registered nationwide. Among the 35-mega cities, Delhi accounted for 24 per cent (320 out of 1,312) rape cases and 34 per cent (759 of the 2,251) of kidnappings and abduction of women. Ironically, among the 35 cities, Delhi accounted for 61 per cent deaths due to starvation and thirst. The other highlights of the NCRB report revealed that nearly one fourth of the total of 10,469 crimes committed against children were reported from Madhya Pradesh. The state also reported the highest crime rate of 11.6 for crimes against Scheduled Castes as compared to the national average of 3.2.

Gujarat reported a 146 per cent increase in dacoity cases while Tripura showed a 750 per cent increase in auto thefts. As for custodial crimes, 84 custodial deaths were reported across the country, for which 32 policemen were charge-sheeted but none convicted. In a separate section, the NCRB report disclosed that 19 per cent of all accidental deaths were reported from Maharashtra and 26 per cent of road accident victims were occupants of either trucks or lorries. Goa accounted for the highest rate of accidental deaths - 71 per 100,000 population, as compared to the national average of 26.4. West Bengal, Maharashtra and Karnataka constituted 37 per cent of a total of 108,506 suicide victims. Fifty-nine housewives committed suicide every day, yet the average male-female ratio of suicide victims was 61:39.