Two women raped in India every hour
1 Dec 2008, 1220 hrs IST, PTI

NEW DELHI: Every 60 minutes, two women are raped in this country.

What is more horrendous is that 133 elderly women were sexually assaulted last year, according to the latest report prepared by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).

A total of 20,737 cases of rape were reported last year registering a 7.2% increase over the previous year, with Madhya Pradesh becoming the `rape capital` of the country by topping the list of such incidents.

Going by the NCRB statistics, two women are raped in the country every hour.

Madhya Pradesh (3,010) accounted for 14.5 per cent of the total cases, with West Bengal following with 2,106 such incidents. Records of high incidence in other states are Uttar Pradesh (1,648), Bihar (1,555) and Rajasthan (1,238).

The national capital had 598 cases in which 602 women were sexually assaulted.

In its report `Crime in India - 2007`, the NCRB noted that offenders were known to the victims in as many as 19,188 cases (92.5 per cent) that included 6,902 incidents in which neighbours were involved.

Parents or close family members were involved in 405 cases while in 1,448 cases relatives were involved. `Everywhere in this country, over 90 per cent of the victims are raped by person known to them,` a senior police official said.

Women in the age-group of 18 to 30 years were the largest chunk among the victims (11,984) followed by 3,530 victims in the age-group of 30-50 years.

While 617 victims were below the age of 10 years, 4,507 were between 10 and 18 years, the report said.

A total of 1,85,312 incidents of crime against women were reported in the country as compared to 1,64,765 in 2006, recording an increase of 12.5 per cent.

Andhra Pradesh was at the top of the list of crime against women accounting for 13.3 per cent of such incidents recorded in the country followed by Uttar Pradesh with 11.3 per cent.

Molestation and sexual cases also increased by 5.8 and 9.9 per cent last year.

Madhya Pradesh, which had the highest number of rape cases, registered a record 6,772 incidents out of a total of 36,617 molestation cases followed by Andhra Pradesh (4406 cases).

Andhra Pradesh shared the dubious distinction of having the largest number of 3,316 sexual harassment cases followed by Uttar Pradesh which had 2,882 cases. Total number of such cases in the country was 10,950.

Respect for women seem to be the most worst in Andhra Pradesh which accounted for 83.5 per cent of cases under Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act of total cases across the country. Out of a total 1,200 such cases, Andhra had registered 1,005 incidents in this regard.

There was a 20.3 per cent increase in cases of torture by husband and relatives with Andhra Pradesh again leading the pack with 11,335 cases out of the 62,128 incidents. West Bengal and Rajasthan were not far behind in torturing women registering 9,900 and 8,170 cases respectively.

According to the report, one-fourth of the dowry death cases were reported from Uttar Pradesh (2,076 cases). Bihar came second in this list with 1,172 cases while the national capital has 138 dowry deaths last year.