UP topped the states in crime against women, while the rate of crime against women speaks otherwise - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
October 6, 2020
A post with an image which states that UP stands in the first position in various aspects of crime like crimes against women, children etc. is doing rounds on social media. Through this article let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: UP stands in first position among other states with respect to various aspects of crimes, like crime against women, children etc.
Fact: According to the Crime in India 2019 report released by the NCRB, Uttar Pradesh has reported the highest number of cases of crime against women and crime under the POCSO Act. As far as other aspects of crime mentioned in the claim, Uttar Pradesh is among the top three states. However, UP being the most populous state in the country, the total number of crimes against women will usually be more. The data related to the crime rate shows that Uttar Pradesh has reported 55.4 crimes per lakh population whereas the national average stood at 62.4. Hence the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) has recently released Crime in India 2019 report in three volumes which talks at length about the crime profile of India. Let’s analyse each claim made in the post with the help of the report.
Crime against women:
According to the report, for three consecutive years i.e. 2017-19, Uttar Pradesh has topped in the number of crimes reported against women. For the year 2019, UP has reported 59,853 incidents of crime against women, the highest among the states, followed by Rajasthan with 41,550 incidents. Maharashtra with 37,144 incidents stood at third position.
Rape cases:
As per the report, Rajasthan with 5,997 incidents has registered the highest number of rape cases in the country followed by Uttar Pradesh with 3,065 registered rape cases. With 2,485 registered rape cases, Madhya Pradesh stood third.
Crime against the girl child:
NCRB did not distinguish the crime against the girl child in its report. However, as per the report for the year 2019, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh are the top three states with 19,592, 19,028 and 18,943 registered cases of crime against children.
Crime under POCSO Act:
NCRB data reveals that with 3,383 registered cases under POCSO Act, Uttar Pradesh stood first in the country as far as crime against children under POCSO Act is considered. Madhya Pradesh with 3,349 cases stood next, whereas Maharashtra followed suit with 3,161 registered cases.
Crime against Women (Metropolitan City wise):
For the year 2019, Delhi has reported the highest number of cases under crime against women among the major metropolitan cities. Delhi has 12,902 registered cases followed by Mumbai with 6,519 cases.  Bengaluru with 3,486 registered cases of crime against women stood next to Delhi and Mumbai. Whereas, Lucknow with 2,425 cases stood sixth in the list.
Crime against women (District wise):
NCRB did not provide data on crime against women district wise. However, the report has enumerated the crime against women in major cities. Faridabad, Bhopal and Gwalior are the top three major cities which reported the greatest number of cases of crime against women.
However, the total incidents of crime do not actually reflect the true picture as the population is not uniform across all the states. Uttar Pradesh being the most populous state, the total number of cases of crime against women will usually be more. Data related to the crime rate against women speaks otherwise. Assam being a small state has recorded the highest rate of crime against women with 177.8 crimes per lakh population, followed by Rajasthan (110.4) and Haryana (108.5).
Though Uttar Pradesh reported the highest number of crimes against women, it stood at eleventh position as far as rate of crime among states is considered with 55.4 per lakh reported crimes against women, whereas the national average stood at 61.3.
To sum it up, as far as various aspects of crime is considered UP is among the top three states., but the rate of crime of UP is not among the top ten.