Crimes against women, children peaked in ’11
Crimes against women and children soar as the state registers four rapes and one molestation every day, writes Gajanan Khergamker
When a few children found missing infant Jagriti Patel’s decomposed body while playing, the Cuffe Parade police were left twiddling their thumbs. After all, despite registering a case of kidnapping against an unknown offender, she could not be found for three whole weeks. A little while back, the police arrested a taxi-driver because he was in the vicinity of the site and had lied about his location to the police who figured it from his mobile phone’s activities on that day.
Maddening Rush To End Investigations
So, for all official purposes, the process of criminal investigation and detection appears to be complete, at least on the face of it. Needless to say, the issue isn’t resolved till the ‘motive’ has established and the case made completely water-tight. Otherwise, the the accused is likely to walk free in a court. As of now, the motive of the apprehended taxi-driver, who has been crying hoarse of his innocence, is yet to be ascertained.
Praja Foundation’s recent Right to Information (RTI) application revealed while fatal accidents have gone up by 80 per cent, cases of molestation have risen 47 per cent in the past three years. The application also points at the gross manpower shortage in the police - the shortfall at almost 19 per cent of the total sanctioned strength – suggesting a contributory reason for an uncontrolled rise in crime.
Falling Drastically Short of Staff
Apparently, Mumbai has a sanctioned force of 41,271 personnel whereas the on-duty police personnel are 33,287. It was revealed that apart from officers working with law and order falling short of manpower, even the traffic department is faced with a severe staff crunch. The traffic police have a shortage of 1,633 personnel - almost 49 per cent of the sanctioned strength of 3,353 personnel. The RTI application revealed the city police force acutely fell short of Assistant Police Inspectors (APIs) and Police Sub-Inspectors (PSIs). Incidentally, these are the main components involved with investigations at grassroots level.
They are the ones who actually visit a crime scene and conduct ground investigations. A shortfall in their numbers is a sure drawback in crime detection and police control.
Of the sanctioned 1,002 APIs and 3,125 PSIs, only 674 and 1,491 filled respectively, according to the RTI findings.
Women continued being unsafe in 2011
2011 revealed a huge rise in cases of violence against women as compared to the previous year. Data compiled by the Mumbai police till December ’11 reveals 30,521 criminal cases registered across the city as compared to 31,813 cases in 2010.
The slump could probably indicate that lesser cases were registered in 2011, reasons for which could range from lesser incidence of crime to growing police reluctance to register cases as is the wont. The number of rape cases reported in 2011 was 208 compared to 190 during 2010. Of the 208 rape victims in 2011, 131 were minors, raising serious doubts on the safety of children.
Also, in 2010, a total of 419 instances of molestation were reported in the city, while, in 2011, the figure rose to 530.
Why, official statistics released by the Mumbai police also indicate that incidence of crime against women soared in 2011.
Statistics Could be Highly Misleading
The fact that the statistics of violence against women rose in 2011 needn’t simply point to the notion that crimes against women rose but could indicate that more women have now started coming forward to register complaints or suggest the Mumbai police have now begun to take women’s complaints more seriously. There was also a corresponding slump in the number of complaints on special helplines for women in distress indicating more cases were being registered in person than on phone. It, however, is no achievement on part of Mumbai police.
The city police had faced a lot of flak for being reluctant to file an FIR lodged by a Charkop teenaged girl who had been abducted and raped by two men she had earlier complained about. She was rescued by the crime branch after being allegedly abducted and raped for 34 days. After pressure from the media and public, the police instituted an inquiry. Within a period of 180 days, the city saw 89 cases of rape and molestation registered with the police between November 2010 and April 2011. There are four rape and molestation cases registered every day in Maharashtra indicative of an even scarier prospect of a higher number of rapes and molestations in reality that go unregistered.
At 166, Mumbai has the highest number of cases registered among the nine cities in the state in the past one year (May 2010 to April 2011). There were 755 cases registered across the state from November 2010 to April 2011, a rise from the 739 cases registered in the previous six months.
The figures could well be just the tip of the iceberg. Few cases of rape get reported forget getting registered. Lesser manage to reach the conviction stage. The police need to start registering cases as they arrive instead of attempting to brush matters off as civil or non-cognisable instead.
Changes in the law on the anvil
The increasing incidence of women getting molested in trains even irked the Bombay High Court which pulled up the railway police on a recent incident.
The Court has recommended to the state that molestation be made into a non-bailable offence and the government is now considering an amendment to Section 354 of the Indian Penal Code to convert molestation into a non-bailable offence and make the sentence harsher.
