GS Paper III

News Excerpt: 

National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), Ministry of Home Affairs released the 70th edition of the annual 'Crime in India' report which contains an exhaustive set of crime statistics for the year 2022.

About the Report:

• The report is published by the National Crime Records Bureau (Ministry of Home Affairs), Government of India. This is the oldest and the most prestigious publication brought out by NCRB. 
• The data for the report is collected by the State Crime Records Bureaux (SCRBx) from the District Crime Records Bureaux (DCRBx) and sent to NCRB at the end of every calendar year under the reference. 
• Data from mega-cities (cities having a population of 10 lakh or more as per the latest census) is also collected separately.
• District-wise data on some IPC heads is collected and published separately. The first edition of 'Crime in India' pertains to the year 1953 and the latest edition of the report pertains to the year 2022.

Observations made by the Report:

• Delhi unsafe for Women: Delhi is the most unsafe metropolitan city for women in the country, recording an average of three rape cases daily, according to the annual report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).
• Delhi recorded 14,158 incidents of crime against women in 2022, the highest number among 19 metropolitan cities for the third consecutive year, with about 186.9 crimes reported for every 1,00,000 women.
• Delhi recorded 1,204 rape cases and 3,909 incidents of kidnapping or abduction of women. A total of 129 cases of dowry deaths were recorded in the city. 
• Delhi reported 4,847 incidents of cruelty by husbands or their relatives.
• According to the observation, in most incidents of rape and assault, the victim and the accused are generally known to each other, which makes it difficult for the police to directly prevent such incidents from taking place as the victim refrains from registering a complaint due to various factors.

• Awareness is rising:

• Awareness drives are carried to explain safe and unsafe touch, and what to do when women and girls find themselves in such situations. We have conducted several such sessions at schools and colleges to make policing accessible.
• The police have been conducting self-defense training camps for women and efficiently working on converting complaints into FIRs. 
• The increase in cases registered for incidents of crime against women also reflects police efforts to check crime. 
• The number of unreported cases has gone down as more women are registering cases. According to the latest NCRB data, 7,400 incidents of crime against children were recorded in the city, which included 22 incidents of murder.

• Other Metropolitan cities: 

• Registration decreased: In the 19 Metropolitan cities -Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Coimbatore, Delhi, Ghaziabad, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Kanpur, Kochi, Kolkata, Kozhikode, Lucknow, Mumbai, Nagpur, Patna, Pune and Surat - crimes registered have decreased by 10.4% over 2021.
• IPC crimes registered have declined by 1.7% and SLL crimes registered have decreased by 27.4% over 2021. 

Mains PYQ

Q. Discuss the types of organized crimes. Describe the linkages between terrorists and organized crime that exist at the national and transnational levels. (UPSC 2022)

Q. Data security has assumed significant importance in the digitized world due to rising cyber crimes. The Justice B. N. Srikrishna Committee Report addresses issues related to data security. What, in your view, are the strengths and weaknesses of the Report relating to the protection of personal data in cyberspace? (250 Words, 15 Marks) (UPSC 2018)