Crime in India 2019 Report: NCRB

• 01 Oct 2020

Why in News

The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) has released the annual Crime in India 2019 report.

• It reports an increase in crimes against Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) in the year 2019 as compared to the year 2018.

Key Points

• Crimes against SCs and STs:
  
  • Crime against SCs have increased by over 7% and crimes against STs have increased by 26% in year 2019 compared to 2018.
  • Uttar Pradesh recorded the highest number of crimes against SCs in 2019, followed by Rajasthan and Bihar.
  • Madhya Pradesh recorded the highest number of cases against STs, followed by Rajasthan, and Odisha.
  • Categories: Crimes against SCs and STs include the following categories:
    
    • Atrocities committed by non-SC/ST members under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities Act), 1989 (POA Act)
    • Indian Penal Code
    • Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955 : It prescribes punishment for the preaching and practice of Untouchability.
  • Lack of Data
    
    • According to the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), very few cases were being registered for specific discriminatory action against SCs and STs under the POA Act.
    • Such actions are registered mainly when accompanied by any of the IPC offences liek rape, murders etc.
    • Also, there is no data on total complaints received on crimes against the Scheduled Castes, the only data available is the number of cases registered.

• Data on Other Crimes
  
  • Cognizable Crimes: An increase of 1.6% in registration of cognizable crimes in 2019 as compared to 2018 was recorded. Cognizable crimes comprise Indian Penal Code (IPC) ones and Special and Local Laws (SLL) crimes.
    
    • Cognisable offence means an offence in which a police officer has the authority to make an arrest without a warrant.
    • SLL are Acts that are framed by the state government for specific issues.
  • Crimes Against Women: Crime against women showed an increase of 7.3% in 2019 from 2018.
    
    • 88 cases of crimes against women were recorded per day.
    • Majority of cases under crime against women under IPC were registered under cruelty by husband or his relatives (30.9%), followed by assault on women with intent to outrage her modesty, kidnapping & abduction of women and rape .
    • In the number of cases of rape of women belonging to SCs, Rajasthan topped the list, followed by Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
  • Cybercrimes: Increased by 63.5% in 2019.
    
    • 60.4% of cybercrime cases registered were for the motive of fraud followed by sexual exploitation.
• Other Related News: The Supreme Court recently upheld the constitutional validity of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Act, 2018.
  
  • The amendment act was challenged on the grounds of violation of the fundamental right to equality (Article 14) and personal liberty (Article 21).
  • The amendment act adds article 18A which states that the preliminary enquiry shall not be required for registration of a First Information Report against any person.
  • It also delineates specific crimes against Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes as atrocities and describes strategies and prescribes punishments to counter these acts.

National Crime Record Bureau

• NCRB, headquartered in New Delhi, was set-up in 1986 under the Ministry of Home Affairs to function as a repository of information on crime and criminals so as to assist the investigators in linking crime to the perpetrators.
• It was set up based on the recommendations of the National Police Commission (1977-1981) and the MHA’s Task Force (1985).
• NCRB brings out the annual comprehensive statistics of crime across the country (‘Crime in India’ report).
  
  • Being published since 1953, the report serves as a crucial tool in understanding the law and order situation across the country.

Source: TH