Story in numbers: Riot cases in UP fell faster than national average

Ahead of the inauguration of Purvanchal Expressway, a flagship project by the Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government, top state officials spoke about the law-and-order situation in the state at a media briefing on November 17, 2021. Here, Awanish K Awasthi, Additional Chief Secretary (Home), and other top officials made claims about the state's crime rate and economic growth. Uttar Pradesh is a crime-free state now, Awasthi was quoted as saying in a report. “The crime rate has come down drastically in Uttar Pradesh. There is no danga (riots) in our state now as this government has a zero-tolerance policy against such elements,” he added.

However, this is a misleading  assertion. Overall crime statistics of the state suggest that in 2020, 355,000 crimes punishable under the IPC and 302,000 crimes punishable under the Special and Local Laws in were registered in the state, according to NCRB data. So, a total of 657,000 crimes were committed in the state in 2020. 

From 2017 to 2020 UP has seen an over  25 % drop in riot cases compared to little over 10 % drop in All-India numbers. If we take data from 2016, the drop in riot cases UP is over 20 % compared to just over 15 % for All-India. Comparing 2020 and 2019, All-India saw over 10 % rise compared to 7 % in UP. 6,126 cases of riots were registered in UP in 2020. The only two states that saw more riots than UP in 2020, were Bihar (9,422) and Maharashtra (9,157). In fact, during 2016-2020, an average of 7,551 cases of riots were registered in UP every year. And,here too, UP ranks third, behind Bihar and Maharashtra, that have recorded an average of 10,055 and 8,357 riots cases every year.