As per the data in the Prison Statistics India report for 2020, out of 90,000 convicts serving their sentence in jail for crimes against the human body, 18,615 are there for crimes against women. Around 67.9 per cent of people convicted for crimes against women were sentenced for rape and 24.5 per cent were convicted for dowry deaths.
The highest number of convicts sentenced for crimes against women were reported to be in Uttar Pradesh (UP), with the number being as high as 4,760. Madhya Pradesh (MP) has 2,944 convicts currently. Jharkhand has the third-highest number of convicts at 1,196. This means that 25.6 per cent, 15.8 per cent and 6.4 per cent of the total convicted prisoners sentenced for crimes against women are in UP, MP and Jharkhand respectively.
The data on undertrials as of December 31, 2020, points out that 64,520 undertrials were lodged in India for offences against women. Among these, 62.8 per cent (40,545) were facing rape charges, followed by 22.4 per cent (14,465) allegedly involved in dowry death cases. UP (31.3 per cent) also reported the highest number of undertrials followed by MP (19.7 per cent) and Bihar (6.4 per cent).
The data from 2019 shows that 13,464 people were convicted of rape. Comparing the data of 2020 with that from 2019, there is an increase in the percentage of rape convicts lodged in India’s jails in 2020.