UP has lowest rape rate among all states: NCRB
Delhi, West Bengal Among 5 Worst States
Shankar Raghuraman TNN
In fact, UP has among the lowest rates of rape among all major states in India. The National Crime Records Bureau’s publication Crime in India 2009 — the latest edition of that annual report — shows that with 1,759 rape victims in 2009, UP had 0.9 rape victims per lakh population. Compare that with the 1,631 victims in a much smaller state like Assam, which means a rate of 5.3 rape victims per lakh population, almost six times the rate in UP. The five best states or UTs in 2009, among those with a population of 100 lakh or more, were Gujarat, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, UP and Bihar in that order, all of them having less than one rape victim per lakh population.
At the other end of the scale, the five worst were Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Delhi and West Bengal, in descending order of the rate. Even the best among this lot, West Bengal had a rate of 2.6 rape victims per lakh population, that is about thrice as bad as in UP. The Congress raising the issue of lawlessness in UP in this context seems particularly ironic given the fact that not one of the five best states or UTs had a Congress government in 2009, although Tamil Nadu had one run by an ally. he truth is that the political colour of the government has little corelation with rape statistics. It is likely that social factors lead to greater under-reporting of crimes against women in a state like UP or Bihar than in, say, Delhi. However, that still does not explain why MP, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan (2.3 victims per lakh population) or Haryana (2.5 per lakh) do not have lower figures than UP or Bihar. After all, there is no reason to believe that there is any less of a stigma attached to rape victims in these states than in UP or Bihar. Times View E ven a single case of a woman getting raped anywhere is one rape too many and deserves to be condemned. However, when crimes like these are sought to be used for political ends, those raising the bogey also deserve condemnation. If those protesting against the recent rapes in UP are seriously concerned about crimes against women in India, they would be better advised to spend their time and energy on figuring out how rapes and other such crimes can be minimised if not eliminated. That would involve, among other things, changing the gender profile of the police force as well as sensitising male policemen to the heinousness of the crime and the trauma of the victims. It is a harder job than agitating with a political motive, but a job that needs to be done.
Maya regime doing better on law and order than Mulayam’s?
Pervez Iqbal Siddiqui TNN
Lucknow: When Mayawati rode to power in UP in 2007, it was largely on the promise of an improved law and order situation. And to a very large measure she has delivered on her promise. The state today is less lawless than it was during the Mulayam Singh regime: that’s the general perception. It also has a better law and order record than several other states — crime figures bear that out.But, suddenly, in the past month or two, Mayawati’s government is in the news for its alleged failure on the front. One case after another — most of them atrocities against women — have been reported from different parts of the state, providing enough fodder for the opposition to put Mayawati on the mat.
With state elections scheduled for 2012, it’s hardly surprising that the opposition parties are making a big deal of these crimes. Maya has struggled to prove that things aren’t as bad as they seem. But the gravity of a rape or a murder can’t be minimized and she is left answering several uncomfortable questions on crime, on fudged autopsy reports, the death in jail of a key accused in a high-profile murder case involving swindling of money out of the Rs 8,500 crore NRHM hospital funds.
But have things actually taken sharp turn for the worse? Would any state appear suddenly lawless if every crime there were to be put under intense scrutiny? In at least half-a-dozen press briefings of the CM, she has quoted figures to support its claim that the crime graph has not shot up all of a sudden. The government has also stressed that during her tenure Mayawati has sent as many as 12 of her MLAs, one minister and one MP to jail. How many regimes do that, the government has pointed out. So, where’s the breakdown that the opposition is crying about?
Statistics compiled by the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB), which comes under the Union ministry of home affairs, reveal that UP has an average of nine rapes in 48 hours. In Delhi, this is three and in Maharashtra it’s eight. The corresponding figures for Bihar is nine, Madhya Pradesh 16, and West Bengal 13. These are 2009 figures. Now, given that UP has the highest population in the country, that would make it one of the safest places in India.
Opposition parties in UP, however, dismiss the NCRB statistics, saying the figures shown are provided by the state government and hence can be tailored. When pointed out that the same would then apply to other regimes, Samajwadi Party state president Akhilesh Yadav said: ‘‘Just try to find out the count of such barbaric crimes during SP rule.’’
But the total number of registered rape cases has indeed shot up during Maya’s regime compared to Mulayam’s. In Mulayam’s time, 1,397 rapes (per lakh population) were registered in 2004; 1,217 in 2005; and 1,314 in 2006. This rose to 1,871 in 2008; came down a bit to 1,759 in 2009; and again went up to 1,801 in 2010. While things may not have improved much in 2011, the situation has not deteriorated drastically either compared to previous years. This was also the time when the opposition went for the kill, projecting a collapse in UP’s law and order. Lending credence to the charge was the gory nature of some of the crimes.
Worse, her government now has to battle the death in jail of Dr YS Sachan, the key accused in CMO murders.
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