Crime against women: Kol 2nd on safe-city list – Times of India

Kolkata: The National Crime Records Bureau’s (NCRB) annual report — ‘Crime in India 2021’ — released recently shows the number of crimes against women has dropped both in Kolkata as well as the rest of the state. Bengal has seen cases dipping from 36,439 in 2020 to 35,864 last year. In Kolkata, the dip is around 10% — from 2001 to 1,783.
Kolkata has also reported the least number of rapes among 19 metros last year. While Kolkata reported 11 cases of rape in 2021, Delhi reported 1,226 rapes — the highest in the country. Delhi was followed by Jaipur, where 502 rapes were registered. In Mumbai, 364 rape cases were reported.
But for the city that had earned the safest city tag for the second successive year, it has been pushed to the second position by Chennai. The rate of crime against women (calculated on per lakh population) is 26.2 for Kolkata. Chennai’s crime rate against women stands at 20.3.
Kolkata has emerged as the only metro city that has reduced the number of crimes against women. Delhi, in contrast, saw 13,982 cases registered in 2021 as against 9,782 in 2020 with a crime rate of 184.6. Mumbai registered 5,543 cases last year, up from 4,583 in 2020. Even Chennai, which did better than Kolkata, saw cases rise to 874 from 576 in 2020.
Majority of cases in Kolkata, yet again, related to cruelty by husband or relatives under IPC 498A. As many as 841 of them were registered in this city as compared to 4,674 in Delhi (highest) and 95 in Chennai (lowest). However, this number was lesser than it was in 2020 when 931 cases under IPC 498A were registered.
Kolkata has reduced dowry deaths to just five, compared to 139 in Delhi, 26 in Bengaluru and 12 in Mumbai. Chennai recorded just a single case of dowry death. Kolkata had zero cases of human trafficking compared to 63 in Delhi and 42 in Mumbai. Seven cases of Immoral Trafficking Act had been slapped in Kolkata as compared to 129 in Bengaluru and 66 in Chennai.
Kolkata registered 127 cases of assault on women, as against 1,023 in Delhi, 644 in Mumbai, 357 in Bengaluru, 73 in Chennai and 177 in Hyderabad.
However, Kolkata Police will remain concerned about protecting its children after it recorded 170 cases under POCSO. As many as 96 of them was related to child rape (section 4 and 6) and 51 cases of sexual assault on children (section 8 and 10 of POCSO). The numbers though are still lesser than other big cities like Bengaluru (312), Chennai (285), Delhi (833) and Mumbai (524).
A total of 177 cases saw cops slap cases under other SLL laws (other than IPC) to book culprits of girl child and women abuse.
The city also recorded two cases of acid attack out of the 16 recorded in big cities and one attempted acid attack. Only Delhi has a higher number of acid attack cases. “Quick action against the accused and the benefits of technology have resulted in a dip in crime numbers,” said an officer at Lalbazar.