From Hindustan to Rapistan!

By the time you are reading this, a 100 more women may have been raped in the country justifying once again the sobriquet it has earned: 'Rapistan'. And Uttar Pradesh would have topped the list after compilation of these reports. Most among these would be the hapless dalits in this land of "Yogi". Whole nation was left benumbed after "Nirbhaya" - a name given to the victims of sexual violence proudly by our shameless rulers in 2012. - and we thought a new law by the name would be a deterrent. How wrong we were!

It seems every underprivileged woman born in this country is entitled to be a 'Nirbhaya'. Because no one cares for them. Society watches silently when they are teased, harassed, kidnapped and raped. A few in the country hold candle light vigils for those who die anonymously (because they are only named Nirbhayas, Dishas etc) and are deprived of final rites. If we think it happened in Hathras in UP now for the first time, we are again wrong. We don't know what name would be given to her, but she is not the only one to be done away with from not only the public gaze but also from that of her kin.

Remember Nirbhaya? When her body came back from Singapore, her parents were forced to agree for the final rites by the authorities in the early hours of the day before the world woke up. Of course, the 'high command' of the Congress was present at Nirbhaya's house to convince the family to fall in line. What happened in Hathras is no different. These women all go the same way.

India reported 4,05,861 cases of crimes against women in 2019 and Uttar Pradesh topped the list with 59,853 such incidents, according to the annual National Crime Record Bureau's "Crime in India" 2019 report released recently. From 2018, the rate of crime against women has risen by 7.3 per cent, with the country recording an average 87 rape cases every day in 2019. Assam reported the highest rate of crimes against women at 117.8 per lakh population.

"Majority of these cases under the Indian Penal Code were registered under 'cruelty by husband or his relatives' (30.9 per cent) followed by 'Assault on women with intent to outrage her modesty' (21.8 per cent), 'kidnapping and abduction of women' (17.9 per cent)," the NCRB data for 2019 showed.

The crime bureau data also showed a significant rise in cases of crimes against children. From 2018, crimes against children have gone up by 4.5 per cent in 2019. A total of 1.48 lakh cases of crime against children were registered in 2019. Of these, about 46.6 per cent were cases of kidnapping and 35.3 per cent cases were related to sexual offences.

Uttar Pradesh also had the highest number of crimes against girl children under the POCSO Act with 7,444 cases, followed by Maharashtra (6,402) and Madhya Pradesh (6,053). The NCRB collected data from 36 states and Union Territories and 53 metropolitan cities.

The Home Ministry said West Bengal did not share its latest data and its 2018 data has been used to arrive at national and city-wise figures. Who knows, we may even be asked to celebrate a booming candle-making industry under the "Atma Nirbhar" programme in future!