[orc]In two previous stories about the NCRB report on Crime in India-2017, we looked at the status of crime across states. In this story, we look at the status of various crimes across 19 of the large Indian cities. Which one reports what kind of crime more?
Higher density of population, wide ranging commercial and non-commercial activities etc. in India’s cities create scope for greater incidence of crime compared to other parts of the country. This is the reason for the NCRB to dedicate a section on crime in metropolitan cities.
The National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB)’s Crime in India (CII) report -2017, has a dedicated section various crime statistics in Metropolitan cities. In this story, we explore the crime statistics in 19 metropolitan cities, provided in NCRB report.
For its CII report-2017, NCRB took into consideration 19 cities in India with population of more than 2 million i.e 20 lakhs.
Delhi recorded the highest number of cognizable crimes with Kochi recording the highest rate
The total number of cognizable crimes recorded in these 19 cities for 2017 was 7,29,174. This is a decrease from the previous two years of 2015 and 2016, when 7,58,970 and 8,08,637 cases of cognizable crimes were recorded respectively.
Delhi recorded highest number of cognizable crimes with 2,24,346 cases, which makes for around 31% of the total number in these 19 cities. Kochi ranks second with 59,612 cases followed by Mumbai which has a total of 58,456 recorded cognizable crimes for 2017.
Among the larger Metro cities, Hyderabad has the least number of recorded cognizable crimes with 16,639 cases for 2017.
While it ranks the highest in respect to total number of cognizable crimes, Delhi ranks second when it comes to the rate of crimes with 1,375 cases per 1 lakh population. The population figures considered for these 19 cities are the actuals of 2011 census.
Kochi has the highest rate among these 19 cities with 2,814 cognizable crimes per 1 lakh population, in line with the fact that Kerala recorded the highest number of cognizable crimes in India in 2017. The average rate of crimes for all these 19 cities is 639.4 per one lakh population and eight cities have a higher crime rate than the national average. Kolkata, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Pune have the least rates of cognizable crimes recorded in 2017.
Crimes under SLL contribute towards higher crime rate for Kochi while it is crimes under IPC for Delhi
The rate of crimes under SLL (Special & Local Laws) is highest for Kochi with 2006 cases per one lakh population. Comparatively, the rate for IPC (Indian Penal Code) crimes is 809 for Kochi.
On the other hand, Delhi has a lower rate of crimes under SLL with 69 per one lakh population while the rate of crimes under IPC is the highest among the cities with 1,306 per one lakh population. Patna, Jaipur, Lucknow and Bengaluru are the other metro cities which have a higher rate of crimes registered under IPC. Kolkata and Hyderabad have the least rate of crimes both for cases under IPC and SLL.
In the case of Violent crime, Patna recorded the highest rate while Kolkata and Coimbatore the least
Violent crimes include various grave crimes such as Murder, causing grievous hurt, culpable homicide, rape, rioting, robbery, arson etc. Among these 19 cities, Delhi has the highest number of violent crimes reported with 11,684 cases. This is a significant drop from 2015 when it was 18,441. Mumbai and Bengaluru, the other highly populated cities stood at 2nd and 4th positions with 5431 and 3813 cases of violent crime respectively. However, Patna which has the least population among the 19 cities (barring Kozhikode), ranks 3rd in terms of the total number of violent crimes recorded in 2017.
This is reflected in its crime rate of 209 per one lakh population in the case of Patna, which is the highest among the cities. The next on the list is Delhi with 71.6, significantly lower than the first placed Patna. Lucknow stands third with 66.9 and Nagpur with 60.3 violent crimes per 1 lakh of population. These numbers become more prominent when we consider the fact that the average rate of violent crimes in these 19 cities is 36.6 per lakh population in 2017.
On the other end of the spectrum, we have cities like Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata and Coimbatore with significantly less violent crime rates with 12.3, 10.1, 8.7 and 7.9 per one lakh population respectively.
Patna has the highest rate of crime for Murder with Delhi, Indore & Patna record the high rate for Kidnapping & Abduction.
Murder and Kidnapping & Abduction are two of the more prominent heads under violent crimes.
A total of 1976 murder cases were reported in 2017 in the 19 metropolitan cities. This is in continuation of the decreasing numbers in the last two years, wherein it was 2207 and 2194 in 2015 & 2016 respectively. Delhi recorded the highest number with 400 murder cases followed by Bengaluru and Patna with 235 and 183 murder cases respectively.
However, Patna has the highest rate of reported murder cases with 8.9 per one lakh population. The next highest is Nagpur with a rate less than half of Patna with 3.4 murder cases per lakh population. The average rate of murder cases among the 19 cities was 1.7 per lakh population in 2017.
A total of 14,759 cases were recorded under ‘Kidnapping and Abduction’ in NCRB’s CII-2017 report, a fall from 15,041 cases in the previous year.
Delhi has the highest number with 5,203 cases followed by Mumbai and Bengaluru with 2159 and 1050 cases respectively. Delhi also has the highest rate of crimes under ‘Kidnapping & Abduction’ with 31.9 cases per lakh population. Indore is a close second with 30.9, followed by Pune with a rate of 26.5 cases per lakh population. The average rate across the 19 cities is 12.9 per lakh population.
Lucknow and Delhi have the highest rate of crimes against Women
As per the NCRB’s CII-2017 report, a total of 40,839 crimes were reported against women in these 19 cities. In the case of absolute numbers, Delhi has the highest number of recorded cases with 11,542 crimes recorded against women. Mumbai and Bengaluru have the next highest number of recorded crimes against women with 5,453 and 3,565 cases respectively. Numbers have fallen when compared to previous year, across the cities.
While leading in number of cases, Delhi has the second highest rate of crimes against women with 152.4 such cases per lakh women. Lucknow has the highest rate of crimes against women with 178.5. Indore, Jaipur, Kanpur and Ghaziabad are other cities with a higher incidence of crime rate in this category. Meanwhile Chennai with 14.9 and Coimbatore with 7.1 per lakh women have the least rate of crimes against women.
Lucknow has the highest rate among these cities in most of the categories of crimes against women.
‘Assault on Women with intent to Outrage her Modesty’ is one category with of the highest incidences of crime among the crime against women with an average of 16.4 per lakh women among the 19 cities. Delhi has the highest rate under this category with 33.6, followed by Lucknow.
‘Cruelty by husband or his relatives’ has the highest rate of crime with 21.1 cases per lakh women across the 19 cities. Lucknow nearly recorded 4 times the average with 83.5 and Jaipur nearly thrice the average with a rate of 61.9 cases per lakh women.
Patna has a very high comparative rate of crimes under ‘Dowry Deaths’ with 6.8, while the average among the cities is 0.8 and the next highest being Kanpur with a rate of 2.5 per lakh women.
Indore has the highest crime rate under ‘Rape” with 19.8 per lakh women followed by Delhi & Jaipur.
Coimbatore and Chennai have consistently lower crime rates amongst all these categories.
Trends in crime rate of the cities reflect the trends observed in the respective states
Factly did a two–story series on the trends in crimes in the States. The observations made in regard to the crime reporting across the states are also reflected in the trends being reflected in the state of crimes in the cities though the crime rates may not be directly comparable since the base population for state crime rate is 2001 census and the cities crime rate is 2011 census.
In so far as absolute numbers as was overall crime rate are concerned, Kerala was at top. However, a more detailed look reveals that most of the cases reported were not violent crimes and Kerala along with other developed states rank lower in respect to violent and grave crimes. On the other hand, Bihar and UP are among the states with higher rates of violent crimes and crimes against women. Similarly, Kochi has highest rate when the overall crimes are considered but when we look at the violent crimes and crimes against women, Patna in Bihar and Lucknow in UP (along with Ghaziabad, Kanpur etc.) have higher rates of crime.
This could be reflective of the observation made in the earlier stories, where most of the developed states may have created an environment where crimes of varied nature can be reported and the FIRs duly registered. However, in other states, only the crimes which cannot be hidden are being reported. The cities continue to reflect the same trends of the respective states.
Another important factor to note is that the crime rates in the cities of developed states are similar to the state crime rates, which could reflect even reporting across the state. While in the case of lesser developed states, the cities have a higher rate of crime than the respective states, which could be a reflection of higher rates of hiding or non-reporting in the hinterlands of these states.
Delhi has a unique position being the National Capital Territory and its standing as being larger than a city and lesser than a full state. While the absolute number of crimes in Delhi is less when compared to other states, it consistently ranks on top when the comparison is among the cities.
Delhi has a unique position being the National Capital Territory and its standing as being larger than a city and lesser than a full state. While the absolute number of crimes in Delhi is less when compared to other states, it consistently ranks on top when the comparison is among the cities.
Featured Image: Crime in Indian cities
