Crimes Against Women Rose by 4%, Delhi 'Most Unsafe City': Decoding NCRB Data

Delhi continues to remain the most unsafe metropolitan city for women, recording three rape cases a day in 2022.

The Quint decoded the 546-page NCRB data and here are the major takeaways.

(Photo: Aroop Mishra/The Quint)

Crime against women in India rose by 4 percent in 2022 as compared to 2021, with 4,45,256 cases being registered last year, revealed the much-awaited 2022 edition of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), released on Sunday, 3 December.

Published on a day when election results in four states were announced, the annual NCRB report finds a surge in the number of cases of crimes reported against children, Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and cyber crimes.

Delhi continues to remain the most unsafe metropolitan city for women in India, with an average of three rape cases reported every day in 2022, the NCRB data showed.

The Quint decoded the 546-page NCRB data and here are the major takeaways.

Crimes Against Women: UP Tops List in States, Delhi in Cities

The NCRB report also shows that the rate of crime against women (number of incidents per 1 lakh population) increased from 64.5 percent in 2021 to 66 percent in 2022.

Out of this, a total of 48,755 cases of crime against women were registered in 19 metropolitan cities during 2022, showing an increase of 12.3% over 2021 (43,414 cases).

A majority of these cases fall under:

• Cruelty by husband or his relatives: 31.4%

• Kidnapping and abduction of women: 19.2%

• Assault on women with intent to outrage: 18.7%

• Rape: 7.1%

When you look at individual states, Uttar Pradesh tops the list of crimes against women recording 65,743 cases in 2022, followed by Maharashtra (45,331) and Rajasthan (45,058).

What about metropolitan cities?

• Delhi, as mentioned earlier reported the highest number of crimes against women at 14,158 cases for the third consecutive year with about 186.9 crimes reported for ever 1,00,000 women.

• The cases of crimes against women in Delhi accounted for 31.20 percent of total crimes in the category, according to the NCRB data.

• Under categories of ‘Assault on Women with Intent to Outrage her Modesty’ and ‘Kidnapping & Abduction of Women’, Delhi tops among the 19 metropolitan cities.

• Followed by the national capital is Mumbai with 6,176 cases and Bengaluru with 3,924 cases.

Rape cases: A total of 31,516 rape cases were recorded in 2022 in India. Out of this:

• 5,399 cases reported from Rajasthan.

• Uttar Pradesh recorded 3,690 cases

• Madhya Pradesh stood at 3,029 cases

• Maharashtra reported 2,904 cases.

• Haryana registered 1,787 cases.

Under the category of ‘Murder with rape/gangrape’, Uttar Pradesh topped the list again with 62 such registered cases, followed by Madhya Pradesh at 41.

Delhi, meanwhile, reported 1,204 rape cases last year, followed by 497 in Jaipur, the NCRB data revealed.

Crimes Against Children: Maharashtra Stands First

A total of 1,62,449 cases of crimes against children were registered during 2022, showing an increase of 8.7% over 2021 (1,49,404 cases).

In percentage terms, the major crimes against children were:

• Kidnapping & Abduction (45.7%)

• Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (39.7%), which includes child rape.

Amongst the states, Maharashtra recorded the most number of crimes against children at 20,762 cases registered in 2022, followed by Madhya Pradesh (20,415) and Uttar Pradesh (18,682).

Out of this:

• UP reported 7,955 cases under the POCSO Act.

• Delhi, on the other hand reported 1,529 POCSO cases in 2022.

• Mumbai was the second highest in metropolitan cities recording 1,195 cases.

What about cases against Juveniles? A total of 30,555 cases have been registered against Juveniles during 2022, depicting decline of 2.0% over 2021 (31,170 cases).

Murder Cases Reported In 2022

In 2022, a total of 28,522 First Information Report (FIRs) of murder were registered in 2022 – an average of 78 killings every day or more than three every hour – across India.

This is down from 29,272 in 2021 and 29,193 in 2020, according to the NCRB data.

What were the key motives?

• ‘Disputes’ with 9,962 cases was the motive in highest number of murder cases in 2022

• 3,761 cases were reported under ‘Personal vendetta or enmity’

• ‘Gain’ with 1,884 cases was the third highest motive.

Of total murder victims, 8,125 were female and nine "third-gender persons", with men constituting about 70 per cent of victims, according to the NCRB.

Crimes Against SCs/STs

A total of 57,582 cases were registered for committing crimes against SCs, showing an increase of 13.1 percent over 2021 (50,900 cases). Meanwhile, 10,064 cases were registered for committing crime against Scheduled Tribes (ST), showing an increase of 14.3 percent over 2021 (8,802 cases).

For the third consecutive year, Uttar Pradesh reported the highest number of crimes against Scheduled Castes (SCs) at 15,368 cases-- a steady increase from 13,146 in 2021. Similarly, Rajasthan also trailed with 8,752 cases, an increase from 7,524 in 2021.

Which city topped the list?

• In metropolitan cities, Lucknow (420) and Jaipur (381) accounted for the highest number of atrocities against SCs, followed by Kanpur (376), Bengaluru (231), Ahmedabad (189) and Delhi (129).

A Sharp Rise in Cyber Crime Cases

A total of 65,893 cases were registered under cyber crimes, showing an increase of 24.4% in registration over 2021 (52,974 cases).

What were the key motives?

• In 2022, 64.8% of the cyber crime cases registered were with the motive of fraud (42,710 out of 65,893 cases)

• Extortion at 5.5% (3,648 cases)

• Sexual exploitation at 5.2% (3,434 cases).

Which city topped the list?

• Telangana reported the highest number of cyber crime incidents at 15,297 cases in 2022

• Karnataka stood at 12,556 cases

• Uttar Pradesh recorded 10,117 cases.

Within metropolitan cities, Bengaluru topped the list by reporting 9,940 cyber crime cases, followed by Mumbai (4,724) and Hyderabad (4,436).

Interestingly, Delhi reported only 685 cyber crime cases in 2022. But, this is double the number it reported in 2021 (345).