West Bengal ranked third in crimes against women, according to the Crimes in India 2013 report released by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). According to the report, undivided Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh ranked first and second, respectively.
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Although there has been no significant change in the report this year, the ruling Trinamool Congress-led State government seemed jubilant with the State’s performance in 2013 and endorsed the report in their official website while it had challenged the 2012 report in which Bengal had finished in the top spot.
According to the 2012 NCRB report, 30,942 crimes were committed against women. However, the figure has fallen marginally to 29,836 crimes in the 2013 report.
Kolkata recorded 2,399 incidents of crimes against women (down from 2,073 incidents in 2012), accounting for 4.49 per cent of the country’s share with a population of 67.93 lakh women, the 2013 report stated.
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West Bengal and Kolkata ranked the highest in importation of girls from foreign countries. West Bengal accounts for the highest number of cases of importing girls among all the States with nine incidents, which accounts for 29.03 per cent of such crimes in the country. All nine cases were reported from Kolkata, which accounted for 100 per cent share among all the cities, the report says.
West Bengal shares a porous border with Bangladesh and incidents of girls getting trafficked from there to the State are rampant.
Kolkata is also home to Asia’s biggest red light district, Sonagachi.
Both the State and Kolkata recorded high number of cruelty cases against women by husbands or relatives. While West Bengal recorded 18,116 cases, Kolkata recorded 1,005 cases. Cases of assaults with intent to outrage modesty were also high with the State recording 4,913 incidents and the city recording 707 cases. In the past year, West Bengal recorded 1,685 cases of rape, 3,830 cases of kidnapping and abduction, 481 cases of dowry deaths and 577 incidents of insult to modesty.
Kolkata recorded 75 rape cases, 145 cases of kidnapping and abduction, 15 cases of dowry deaths, 1,005 cases of cruelty by husband or by his relative and 412 incidents of insult to modesty. As many as 104 and 31 incidents of Immoral Traffic Act, 1956, were registered in the State and the city, respectively.
According to the 2013 report, with a population of 444.25 lakh girls in the State, the State’s rate of crime against women accounted for 9.64 per cent of the country’s share. The rate of cognisable crimes in the State was 67.14.