The ‘Crime in India’ statistics for the year 2015 by the National Crime Record Bureau are out, and Mumbai’s performance can be termed at disappointing, at best and panic-inducing, at worst.
With a total population of 184.1 lakh, the city witnessed 42,940 cases of cognisable crimes in 2015, increasing from 40,361 cases in 2014. 6.4 percent of the crimes that happened in all mega cities (53 cities which have a population greater than 10 lakh), happened in Mumbai.
It isn’t much of a stretch to notice the 14 percent increase in the cases booked against homosexuals under Section 377 in Maharashtra in the same year the BJP, with its contradictory idea of a sanskaari, Hindu, modern, liberal India, was coming into its own, both in the state and the centre.
Cyber crime rose by 50.1 percent, with most cases related to credit card fraud, which increased by 71 percent in 2015.
Interestingly, while the total number of riots reported have come down by a small margin, political and caste-based riots have seen an increase from 7 to 10 and 2 to 10, respectively in 2015. Within caste-based riots, hostility between SCs/STs and Non-SCs/Non-STs has doubled in Mumbai.
Kidnapping and abduction rose by a mind-boggling 192 percent in Mumbai in 2015, with the national increase being only 7.5 percent. A comparison with Delhi, the mega city with the highest number of recorded kidnappings and abductions also throws the growth of crime in Mumbai in sharp light; the capital state shows a 10 percent growth in comparison.
Crimes Against Women
Mumbai holds an almost-exclusive claim to being the only megapolis in the country which is safe for women. But a quick look across the spectrum of crimes committed against women reveals that the city has seen a rise in such crimes in 2015.
In the instance of the number of reported rapes in 2014 and 2015, Mumbai’s percentage increase is almost triple that of Delhi, the “rape capital of India”!
Looking on the positive side, cases of dowry, acid attacks, and attempts to rape have reduced from 22 to 9; 2 to 1; and 2 to 0 respectively from 2014 to 2015.
The almost uniform trend of all crimes against women mostly increasing is corroborated by Maharashtra coming in at the top as the state with the most number of sexual offences against women in 2015, with 16,989 cases being reported.
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