46% Rise in Complaints Against Women
There was a 46 per cent rise in complaints of crimes against women in the first eight months of 2021 over the corresponding period of last year
46% Rise in Complaints Against Women
There was a 46 per cent rise in complaints of crimes against women in the first eight months of 2021 over the corresponding period of last year, and over half of these were from Uttar Pradesh, the National Commission for Women (NCW) said.
More Important Points:
- NCW chief Rekha Sharma said there has been a rise in the complaints because the commission has been regularly conducting awareness programs due to which the public is now more aware about its work.
- The NCW received a total of 19,953 complaints of crimes against women from January to August this year, up from 13,618 in the corresponding period of 2020, it said.
- In July, as many as 3,248 complaints were received by the NCW which is the highest in a month since June 2015, it added.
- Of the 19,953 complaints, the highest number of 7,036 were recorded under the right to live with dignity clause, followed by 4,289 complaints of domestic violence and 2,923 complaints of harassment of married women or dowry harassment, the NCW said.
- Among states and union territories, the highest number of complaints was received from Uttar Pradesh (10,084), followed by Delhi (2,147), Haryana (995) and Maharashtra (974), the commission said.
National Commission for Women (NCW):
The National Commission for Women was set up as statutory body in January 1992 under the National Commission for Women Act, 1990 to :
- review the Constitutional and Legal safeguards for women ;
- recommend remedial legislative measures ;
- facilitate redressal of grievances and
- advise the Government on all policy matters affecting women.
In keeping with its mandate, the Commission initiated various steps to improve the status of women and worked for their economic empowerment during the year under report. The Commission completed its visits to all the States/UTs except Lakshdweep and prepared Gender Profiles to assess the status of women and their empowerment. It received a large number of complaints and acted suo-moto in several cases to provide speedy justice. It took up the issue of child marriage, sponsored legal awareness programmes,Parivarik Mahila Lok Adalats and reviewed laws such as Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961, PNDT Act 1994, Indian Penal Code 1860 and the National Commission for Women Act, 1990 to make them more stringent and effective.It organized workshops/consultations, constituted expert committees on economic empowerment of women, conducted workshops/seminars for gender awareness and took up publicity campaign against female foeticide, violence against women etc. in order to generate awareness in the society against these social evils.
