A study on similar complaints filed in 2022 shows that crime against women is increasing across India, whether it is in Manipur or West Bengal. It was published by the National Commission for Women and said that 30,957 reports of crimes against women were made in the previous year.
The overall number of complaints filed increased by 30% from 23,700 instances in 2021, according to the NCW’s Statistical Overview of Complaints. The NCW got the most complaints in 2022, after 2014, when it received 33,906 of them.
16,872 cases, or 54.5 percent, of these complaints came from Uttar Pradesh (UP), the state with the highest population. Delhi was next with 3,004 complaints (10%), Maharashtra with 1,381 complaints (5%), Bihar with 1,368 complaints (4.4%), Haryana with 1,362 complaints (4.4%), Madhya Pradesh with 1,141 complaints (3.7%), Rajasthan with 1,030 (3.3%), Tamil Nadu with 668 (2.2%), and West Bengal with
According to the NCW study, domestic violence and emotional abuse constituted the majority of these complaints. 9,710 complaints were filed in the “right to live with dignity (emotional abuse)” category, 6,970 in the “protection of women against domestic violence” category, and 4,600 in the “harassment of married women/dowry harassment” category. Domestic abuse and emotional abuse were the main complaints from Uttar Pradesh.
Over 2,500 complaints were filed with the NCW under the heading “outraging modesty of a woman or molestation,” 1,701 under “rape/attempt to rape,” 1,623 under “police apathy against women,” and 924 under “cyber crimes.”
Smriti Irani, the minister of women and child development, responded to a question in the Lok Sabha by presenting data showing that 357 complaints of “harassment of married women/dowry harassment” were filed in 2022, 341 in 2021, and 330 in 2020, while 1,710 complaints of “rape/attempt to rape” were filed in 2022, 1,681 in 2021, and 1,236 in 2020. The response from the union minister was, “There is an increase in the number of complaints lodged in the commission under categories ‘dowry’ and ‘rape or attempt to rape’ in the previous three years and this year.
In 28 states and union territories (UT), 764 fast-track special courts, including 411 e-POCSO tribunals, were operational as of January 2023, according to the minister’s statistics. As of December 2022, the courts had resolved more than 1,44,000 complaints, but there were still more than 1,98,000 cases still ongoing.
NCW director Rekha Sharma said on the 2021 report that “the commission has always made it a point to launch new initiatives to help women.” She said that as more women become aware of their right to file complaints, the number of complaints is rising.