How data tells a broken history of violence against women in India.
Every day in India, 90 rapes are reported and a crime against a woman is committed every three minutes. Many more go unreported due to the fear and stigma surrounding violence against women.
Types of Crimes
Long-standing gender inequalities in the country speak to the extent of physical and sexual violence against women in India. It pervades not only society but also data that the National Crime Bureau of India collects on crimes against women. The frequency and specificity of such crimes means that there are numerous categories for different forms of violence, ranging from domestic abuse, sexual assault, and murder. However, it is important to remember that many other unlisted acts are much harder to define and quantify. Even more cases go unreported due to female victims not being taken seriously.
In order to understand the full picture of crimes against in women, we look at geographic and numeric data of a broad set of crimes from 2001 to 2014 from the National Crime Bureau of India.
Dowry Deaths
A dowry death is “the murder or suicide of a married woman caused by a dispute over her dowry.” Husbands and in-laws frequently extort a greater dowry by harassment and torture which leads to the wife committing suicide or the exchange of gifts, money, or property upon marriage. Uttar Pradesh and Bihar accounted for 27.3% (2,244 cases) and 15.5% (1,275 cases) of nationwide cases in 2013. As of 2018, it was still common to have more than 5,000 cases of dowry deaths per year.
Rape
According to the National Crime Records Bureau, a woman is raped every 20 minutes in India. It is one of the most common acts of sexual violence in India. Marital rape is not considered a criminal offense. Due to increased attention in the media, women becoming more independent and educated, more women are reporting rapes. In December 2012, after international news reported the gang rape of a 23-year-old student on a moving bus in Delhi, the number of reported rapes doubled from 143 in January to March 2012 to 359 during the three months after the rape. However, even though rapes are becoming more frequently reported, many are unreported or are withdrawn due to the perception of compromising family honor. Still more women do not receive justice for their rapes because they are not given fair hearings and unrecorded medical evidence makes it easy for offenders to get away with their crimes.
Insult and Assault with Intent to Outrage a Woman’s Modesty
The term “insult to modesty” means any attempt — sound, gesture, or exhibits — intending to disrespect a woman, pulling a woman, or removing her dress coupled with a request for sexual intercourse. The term is a reflection of Indian societal values, as Indian law assumes that insult to modesty can be only committed by men. Assaults with intent to outrage modesty more than doubled from 40,413 cases in 2008 to 82,235 cases in 2014. From 2011 to 2012, Andhra Pradesh had accounted for 40.5% (3,714 cases) of national accounts.
Kidnapping and Abduction
Many girls and women are taken against their will for marriage and abductions of women for marriage accounted for 40% of all cases of kidnappings and abductions in India in 2013. The number of kidnapping and abductions increased by 71% between 2010 and 2014.
Cruelty by Husband or His Relatives
Domestic violence by men against women can be physical, emotional, verbal, economic, and sexual abuse. 38% of Indian men admit they have physically abused their partners and every 9 minutes, a case of cruelty is committed by either husband or a relative of the husband. The Indian government passed the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act of 2005 in order to reduce rates of domestic violence.
A History of Reported Crimes
Perhaps the biggest lesson that data on crimes against women in India is not only the sheer numeric and geographic pervasiveness of the mistreatment of women but also the legislative and societal events that surround violence against women in India.
Societal, Legal, and Geographic Artifacts in Data
For instance, the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 sought to protect women from sexual harassment at their place of work. The Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013 also introduced changes to the Indian Penal Code, making sexual harassment an expressed offense under Section 354 A for the very first time. It also introduced new sections which made acts like disrobing a woman without consent, stalking, sexual acts by a person in authority, and acid attacks an offense. These legal changes followed the fatal gang rape of Jyoti Singh in New Delhi in 2012, sparking national protests and demand for change. The change in classification of crimes as well as widespread coverage of violence against women directly corresponded with the National Crime Bureau data in a drastic increase in reported crimes in 2013 across all crime categories.
Recent national attention has been given to the mistreatment women face in India, but there is still a long way to go. While changes in legislation make reporting crimes slightly easier, the numbers keep increasing. Reported numbers don’t tell the whole story, as attempted crimes far outnumber ones that are recorded. There is also a disproportionate number of cases reported in more central, urban areas compared to the less dense, perimeter areas of India. It is difficult to know whether more reported cases are due to population size or awareness surrounding women’s issues in specific states or union territories.
The problem facing India’s culture of violence against women is the complete lack of sensitivity to women in positions of power. Activists push for practical and big-picture changes, but there is no single thing that will fix the problem.
One thing is for sure: as changes come, the data will show it.