Times of India: Mumbai: Saturday, August 24, 2013.
Rape has been
on a steady rise in Mumbai over the last 11 years. From 128 in 2002, rape cases
rose to 231 in 2012, an 80% increase. This year, 89 women, including 46 minors,
were raped till March.
Also, while
the detection rate is good about 95% in the last two years, for instance the
conviction rate is abysmal: only one in five suspects arrested is punished. In
all, 1,631 women and girls were raped from January 1, 2002 to March 31, 2012.
While 2,072 people were arrested, only 346 were punished.
Some cases
stand out. Constable Chandrakant Pawar of the Sahar police station, who was
given 15 years in jail for raping an underage rag picker, was acquitted by the
Bombay high court in 2001. Some police stations are worse than the others. The
D B Marg police, which registered 46 rapes and arrested 91 people in the period
concerned , could secure conviction only in two cases. Sometimes the punishment
given causes surprise. In a Juhu case, the convict was fined only Rs 3,000.
The police
are loath to even release data. RTI activist Chetan Kothari, who got the
11-year information, had to make several rounds of police stations. "It is
not easy to get statistical details from the police. They are reluctant. It
took me three months to get the data."
After the
Nirbhaya rape case earlier in the year in New Delhi, the Mumbai police
announced to start counselling centres for women all over the city, including
Ghatkopar, Dadar, Bandra and Chembur. The centres, which were to tell women how
to be safe, are yet to start.
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