New Delhi: The crimes against women, children, senior citizens, Scheduled Castes (SC), and Scheduled Tribes (ST) rose by 4%, 8.7%, 9.3%, 13.1%, and 14.3% while the economic offences increased by 11.1%, corruption by 10.5% and cyber crimes by 24.4% in 2022, according to the latest National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) annual report.
The report titled “Crime in India 2022” is based on data from 36 tere} and Union territories as well as central agencies. It was released on Friday and made public on Sunday.
The annual report provides insights to lawmakers, Union, and state governments as well as academics, students, and others involved in the formulation of policies and, analysis.
The NCRB report was delayed by at least five months. It is usually made public by July or August annually.
The report said 4,45,256 cases of crime against women were registered in 2022, an increase of 4% compared to 4,28,278 in 2021. It added a majority of cases related to cruelty by spouses or their relatives (31.4%) followed by kidnapping and abduction (19.2%), assault “with Intent to outrage modesty” (18.7%), and rape (7.1%).
A maximum of 5,399 of a total of 31,516 rape cases were reported from Rajasthan in 2022, followed by Uttar Pradesh (3,690), Madhya Pradesh (3,029), Maharashtra (2,904) and Haryana (1,787). Delhi reported 1,212 rape cases last year, the report said. “The crime rate registered per lakh women population was 66.4 in 2022 in comparison with 64.5 in 2021.”
As many as 1,62,449 cases of crimes against children were registered during 2022, showing an increase of 8.7% (1,49,404 cases) compared to 2021. A majority of these cases related to kidnapping and abduction (45.7%) and 39.7% were filed under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.
Crime against senior citizens rose by 9.3% to 28,545 cases compared to 26,110 cases in 2021. A bulk of these cases (7,805 or 27.3%) related to hurt followed by theft (3,944 or 13.8%) and forgery, cheating, and fraud (3,201 or 11.2%).
The crimes against SC rose by 13.1%, from 50,900 cases in 2021 to 57,582 cases last year. The crimes against ST increased by 14.3%—from 8,802 to 10,064 cases last year.
The NCRB report said the economic offences increased by 11.1% (1,74,013 cases). As many as 4,139 corruption cases were registered in 2022 compared to 3,745 cases in 2021, marking a 10.5% increase. The cyber crimes rose by 24.4% to 65,893 cases compared to 52,974 in 2021.