The National Commission for Women (NCW) revealed that there was a 46 per cent rise in reports of crimes against women in India in 2021, at least so far. More than half of these reports came from Uttar Pradesh. The pandemic saw a surge in crimes against women, including domestic violence and human trafficking, as also witnessed in 2020. However, last year, many of these acts of violence went unreported. And with the rise in reports of such crimes this year, NCW believes it is a good sign that women are finding the courage to speak up.
NCW chief, Rekha Sharma explained that there has been a clear spike in the statistics because they have been vigorously conducting awareness programs, thus empowering women with enough knowledge and resources to file a complaint.
“The commission has always made it a point to launch new initiatives to help women. Keeping in line with this, we have launched a round-the-clock helpline number as well to provide support services to women in need where they can also register a complaint,” Sharma was quoted by PTI.
There were 19,953 reports of crimes against women from January to August this year. Out of these, 7,036 complaints were made under the right to live with dignity, which includes emotional and mental abuse. There were 4,289 complaints against domestic violence and 2,923 against harassment by husband or in-laws.
In terms of sexual crimes against women, there were 1,116 complaints against outraging a woman’s modesty, 1,022 reports of rape and attempt to rape. There were also 585 reports of cybercrimes.