Hindustan Times: New Delhi: Saturday, November 25, 2017.
One in every
14 persons in Delhi over the age of 18 years has faced crime, says a report
released on Thursday by an NGO.
The report
‘The State of Policing and Law & Order in Delhi, 2017’ released by Praja
Foundation also says one in every three persons who has faced crime has not
reported it to the police, mostly citing lack of faith in the system.
The NGO
surveyed nearly 24,301 households and accessed data procured under the Right to
Information (RTI) Act, 2005, to come up with the report.
The research
was conducted to study the perception of citizens with regard to their safety
and security.
According to
the findings, crime against women in Delhi has been consistently high with
2,181 cases of rape and 3,969 cases of molestation reported in 2016.
The report
says the victims were women in 59.60% of the total kidnapping cases registered
in 2016.
Milind
Mhaske, project director Praja Foundation, said, “One can clearly draw an
observation between the feeling of safety and security of women and children to
the registration of cases, as out of the total 2,181 rape cases registered in
2016, 44.80% were under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO)
Act in 2016.”
The NGO said
60% of the respondents felt women, children and senior citizens were not secure
in their localities.
The report
says the outer district registered the maximum number of cases (178) under the
POCSO Act in 2016, followed by South East (125 cases) and North East (124
cases).
Outer
district registered the maximum number of rape cases (367) in 2016. The number
was 312 in 2015.
South
district reported the highest registration of molestation incidents, 590, in
2016.
The police
department is understaffed, the report says. At present, Delhi has a sanctioned
strength of 84,685 police personnel of which 8,091 posts are vacant.
The NGO said
there was a need to create an awareness campaign against sexual abuse of
children with all the stakeholders–children, parents, schools and colleges. It
also said there should be strict compliance of regulations through the Police
Complaints Authority.
Reacting to
the report, Delhi Police spokesperson Dependra Pathak said that the number of
households selected for the survey doesn’t give a true picture of the ground
reality.
“The target
sample selected for the survey doesn’t give the complete picture. Women
security and safety is our top priority. The number of cases getting registered
has gone up because complaints are getting registered online,” said Pathak.
On the
finding that the police department is understaffed, Pathak said Delhi Police is
in the process of recruiting more staff.
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