Crimes against women have been “rising consistently” in Uttar Pradesh in the last five recorded years displaying a steep rise under the Samajwadi Party government, in power since 2012.
Crimes against women increased by a significant 61 per cent between 2010-11 and 2014-15, with a sharp climb during 2013-14, the Comptroller and Auditor General has noted in a new report, a performance audit on ‘women empowerment.’
The report was tabled in the U.P. Assembly recently. Though spread over the periods of Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav rule, the report especially indicts the SP government.
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Between 2011 and 2015, the CAG notes, the number of crimes against women increased from 20,951 to 33,694. The figures were based on data submitted by the U.P. Home Department, which falls under Chief Minister Yadav.
The 2015 NCRB report updates the latest figure of crimes against women at 35,527, retaining U.P. as the top State in crimes against women nationally with 10.9 per cent of the crimes. Rape cases doubled Ninety-nine per cent of the crimes against women in the State were dominated by incidents of rape, homicide for dowry, dowry deaths or their attempts, torture — both mental and physical — assault on women with intent to outrage her modesty, kidnapping and abduction and cases under Dowry Prohibition Act. The number of rape cases almost doubled — 1,582 to 2,945 between 2011 and 2015.
“The most worrying fact” the CAG said, “is that 59 per cent of rape victims were minors.” The most notorious districts in terms of rape were Meerut, Allahabad, Aligarh, Moradabad, Agra and Lucknow. Four of these top six are from west U.P.
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Dowry murders and attempt to murder for dowry also saw an increase of 11 per cent in the last five years. The cases registered under the Dowry Act 1961 also shot up by 17 per cent — 940 to 1,100. Kidnapping and abduction cases also saw a constant rise and here, too, most of the victims, 71 per cent, were minors. Cases of torture also increased from 7,302 to 9,476, while assault with intent of outraging modesty cases marked a big jump —2,989 to 7,972 — and once again, the most common victim, 55 per cent, were minors.
Trafficking of girls and women also increased by 21 per cent between 2011 and 2015. The State, however, could not reveal the action it took against the guilty and details of the girls who were recovered, the CAG said.
While the Akhilesh Yadav government has claimed to take steps to ensure women safety and promoted its ‘1090’ helpline number, the CAG opined that the State did not take concrete steps like overcoming the shortage of police personnel, both male and female, or paid timely compensation to victims. “Despite high incidence of crime, the State Government has not taken effective steps to significantly strengthen its police force as the actual police manpower per one lakh population in the State is amongst the lowest in the country. The Government schemes for providing financial and other support to the victims have not been implemented effectively,” the CAG said.
In U.P., a population of more than 20 crore is policed by only 1,62,783 police personnel — 81 policemen for every lakh citizens even as the sanctioned strength should have been 178. The national average is 136.42, which is way below the global standards.