Bhopal: The state is not safe for the woman, and the figures are enough to send a shiver down anybody’s spine. In the year 2017, on an average around 12 girls and women are sexually assaulted daily and nearly 26 were molested in the state. The year saw rise in crime against women as in 2016, every day nearly 10 girls were raped and 24 molested.
The recent incidents of crimes have belied the government’s claim of girls’ safety in the state. The rising number of rapes, gang rapes, kidnapping, molestations reveal says that that is much need to be done as far as the security of fairer sex is concerned.
As per yearly records of police department, there was around 15 per cent rise in number of rape cases in the year 2017. The state which has earned the dubious distinction of being the rape capital of the county, witnessed 4541 women and girls being raped in 2017, the figures were 3951 and 4139 in the year 2016 and 1015 respectively, said official sources.
Similarly, the cases of molestation went up by 36 per cent as compared to 2016. In the year 2015, 9234 molestation cases were registered, the number dropped to 8856 in 2016, but again in 2017 it touched 9818, almost 36 per cent higher than the previous year. These figures have come out in the yearly report of the police department.
For the first time, police have registered around 1000 cases of stalking, 379 cases for passing sexual comment, whistle blowing, or singing vulgar song and other. Nearly 125 cases of voyeurism were registered by police. If records of last four months are taken into consideration, police have failed to check the numbers of offences against women. During this period, 10 women were burnt alive, 62 women and 33 minor girls were gang-raped in the state.
The state has even passed a bill, proposing death penalty to persons convicted for raping minors aged up to 12 years, but this has failed to deter the sexual offence predators.
Since November 2017 to February 15, 2018 around 62 women were allegedly sexually assaulted, as many as 33 minor girls were gang-raped and six girls have been murdered in the state. Also, 43 women were murdered and 10 women were burnt alive – five alone in Hoshangabad- during this period, says the official record.
During last four months as many as 115 cases of crime against women took place which includes various offences like gang-rape, murder and cases of women being sent on fire.
The rape capital…
For the few years, Madhya Pradesh has been among the top five states in the country witnessing maximum crime against women. According to the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) Crime in India data for 2016, MP stood on top in rape cases.
According to the NCRB data for 2016, out of 38,947 rape cases reported in the year across the country, Madhya Pradesh reported the maximum 12.5 per cent followed by UP with 12.3 per cent and Maharashtra with 11 per cent.
