Over 1K cases of violence against women reported daily: NCRB's 2022 report

A drop in the national crime rate has not necessarily meant better disposal of such cases in the courts

On the face of it, 2022 was a discernibly better year for India as the country witnessed less crime than the year before. The police recorded 3.6 million crime cases last year, which is 3 per cent less than in 2021. However, crimes against women, caste crimes and digital fraud increased, according to the Crime in India Report 2022.

Crime rate, or the ratio of criminal cases relative to population, declined in 2022 (chart 1).

Moreover, the number of cases in which police filed charges fell in 2022 after an improvement during the pandemic
(chart 2).

 

Crime rates and charge sheeting differed across various Indian cities. With over 298,000 cases registered in 2022, Delhi reported a crime rate of 1,832.6 — or seven times the national average. The city, however, had the lowest charge sheet rate of 30.2 per cent. Jaipur reported a crime rate of 916.7, and Indore 767.7. Crime rate in Mumbai was 376.3 with a higher charge sheeting rate of 77 per cent (chart 3).

With over 11,000 cases, Delhi accounted for the highest number of violent crimes among all metropolises. Mumbai followed with about 5,000 such cases. Over 2,000 cases were reported from Bengaluru and Pune each.

Violent crimes include murder, infanticide, foeticide, dowry deaths, grievous hurt, kidnapping and abduction, rape, rioting, and robbery among others.

A dip in the national crime rate has not necessarily meant better disposal of such cases in the courts. Analysis shows that the conviction rate dropped by about 3 percentage points to 54.2 per cent in 2022 compared to the previous year. It had risen to 59 per cent in 2020. Despite this fall in conviction rates, however, pendency rates also declined. About 89 per cent of the cases in courts were awaiting judgment in 2022 compared to 91 per cent in 2021 (chart 4).

Meanwhile, disposal of crimes against women worsened even as they accounted for about a tenth of all the crimes registered.

Over 365,000 cases of crimes against women were recorded in 2022, or an average of 1,001 cases daily. This is a 2 per cent rise compared to the average in 2021 (chart 5).

Cruelty by the husband (or his relatives) accounted for about 40 per cent of these cases. While cases of “kidnapping and abduction” and “assault with an intent to outrage a woman’s modesty” made up 23 per cent each, rape accounted for 8.6 per cent of these cases.

The conviction rate in crimes against women remained below the average for all criminal cases. Only 23.3 per cent of cases ended in a conviction in 2022 with a pendency of 93 per cent. While the conviction rate for cases of rape/gang rape was 69.4 per cent, it was 17.7 per cent for cases of cruelty by the husband. The pendency rate for both crimes remained over 90 per cent.

Delhi reported the highest number of cases of crimes against women (12,552). The national capital was followed by the financial capital, Mumbai, with over 5,000 cases. About 3,186 such cases were reported from Jaipur, 2,737 cases from Hyderabad and 2,264 cases from Bengaluru.

Apart from gender crimes, the pandemic has also led to a spurt in cases of cybercrime and digital fraud as more people switched to digital transactions. Over 6,400 cases of fraud in online banking were registered in 2022, a significant rise since 2019. While one-time password frauds increased by 430 per cent to over 2,910 cases, ATM related frauds witnessed a decline (chart 6).

Telangana reported the highest number of such frauds in 2022, with 3,223 victims, followed by Maharashtra (909), Andhra Pradesh (569), and Uttar Pradesh (483).