Recently, a 22-year woman was allegedly gang-raped on November 17 after she took a shared auto-rickshaw to take her to her home in Mohali near Chandigarh. There were two men, apart from the driver, in the vehicle. The police tracked down the driver, Mohammed Irfan, and his associates Garib and Poppu from security footage at the gas station. They were arrested a week after the assault. On this heinous event, Kirron Kher, MP of the area reacted in a way that was quite ambiguous. She pointed out that boys should be controlled but still, girls should also be alert. She indirectly blamed the victim because according to her, she boarded the auto-rickshaw in which three men were already there including the driver. The outrage over her comment was bound to happen. She later clarified, “I just said we are living in bad times. We all, especially ladies, have to take precautions. As a mother, I am saying this that we need to take care.” Chandigarh has a shortage of public transport. The condition worsens as the sun sets. instead of improving this drawback, she blamed the victim, not completely but indirectly. This is just a sample and throughout the nation, law makers’ ideology is the same.
The National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) released ‘Crime in India – 2016 Statistics’ in a press conference by our Hon’ble Union Home Minister, Rajnath Singh. It was for the first time in the publication data on 19 metropolitan cities had been included in the chapters on “Violent Crimes”, “Crimes Against Women”, “Crime Against Children”, etc. The total “Crime Incidences” increased by 2.6% from 2015. The National Average Crime Rate increased from 374.1 to 379.3 crime per lakh population. Uttar Pradesh notoriously topped the table of highest number of IPC crimes in the year 2016 (9.5% of total IPC Crimes). Delhi recorded the worst crime rate of 974.9 crimes per lakh population.
The air is almost becoming opaque in Delhi. This may be the reason of increasing crime in the capital as it would become easier for the criminal to accomplish its mission and run without being seen! Jokes apart, criminals in the capital are becoming more and more immune to the police and laws. Delhi reported the highest crime against women rate of 160.4, almost treble the national average of 55.2. Just a week ago, a teenager was stabbed to death by a group of underage boys in the government-run cluster bus. The reason for the conflict was that the teenager accused the boys of stealing his phone and tried to check their pockets. The juveniles slit his throat and jumped off the bus. There were at least 40 other passengers in the bus at the time of murder who didn’t care to intervene. Boys were later caught by the police and they revealed that their gang used to indulge in stealing and if the victim resisted, they used to slit its throat. The Delhi government has deputed a civil defense volunteer in every bus, but the Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal Transit System (DIMTS), which operates cluster buses, confirmed on Friday that there was no volunteer on the bus.
Government figures show 56 juveniles in Delhi were involved in murder cases in the previous two years. Overall, 2,499 crimes in the city were committed by juveniles in 2016, according to police data.
Women became more unsecure as cases under Crime against women had seen an increase of 2.9% from its 2015 figure. Uttar Pradesh topped the chart with 14.5% of total cases under crime against women in 2016. Crime against children increased astoundingly by 13.6%. Atrocities against SCs and STs increased by 5.5 and 4.7% respectively. Uttar Pradesh (25.6%), Bihar (14%) and Rajasthan (12.6%) accounted for more than 50% cases for atrocities against SCs. Cyber Crime also increased by 6.3%. The silver-lining of the government is that the number of riots decreased.
As you can see, the crimes are keeping the peace at bay. Government cannot blame the growing population for the increase in criminal incidences as the national average also deteriorated. Now, the food for thought is that these are recorded cases. Many cases go unrecorded due to society pressure and goons. In short, the condition is much worse than that illustrated by statistics. ‘Acche din’ are getting farther. The dream of ‘Ram Rajya’ is becoming just a dream only.
