List various crimes against women in India and examine the factors responsible for them.

Answer-Crimes against women in India increased by 15.3 percent in 2021, as per National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) 2021 data. There is not only an increase in the total number of cases registered, but the crime rate has also increased. There has been an increase in the rate of cases registered per lakh women population from 56.5 in 2020 to 64.5 in 2021.

Every 16 minutes and rape is committed on a woman in India, according to National crime records bureau (NCRB) reports in 2021 only in India 31677 cases were reported in a single year which is 86 cases Daily. More than 370 acid attack cases are reported in single year in India says reports, which means more than a dozen in a single month.to 4.5 in 2021 from 56.5 in 2020.

In 2021, 4,28,278 cases of crimes were registered against women in India, marking an increase of 15.3 % from 2020.

In 2021,as per NCRB data, Most of the cases that were registered under crime against women were under 'Cruelty by Husband or His Relatives (31.8%), followed by 'Assault on Women with Intent to Outrage her Modesty' (20.8%), 'Kidnapping and Abduction of Women' (17.6 %), and 'Rape' (7.4%),

Every 16 minutes a rape is committed on a woman in India according to National crime records bureau (NCRB) reports in 2021 only in India 31677 cases were reported in a single year which is 86 cases daily. More than 370 acid attack cases are reported in single year in India says reports, which means more than a dozen in a single month. Crimes against women occur both within and outside the domestic walls. Women are not safe anywhere in this world.

There are many crimes against women, but I have explained a few of them, which are as follows:-

Female Foeticide

Female foeticide refers to the selective abortion of the female fetus in the mother's womb before its birth, mainly for the selfish greed of having a male child.

As per the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, illegal abortions are still more in number than legal abortions, and every year thousands of women die due to health complications resulting due to unsafe abortions. According to the Population Research Institute, 12,771,043 sex-selective abortions took place in India between 2000 and 2014. It takes the daily average of sex-selective abortions to 2,332. India accounts for one of the highest female foeticide cases in the world.

The various factors responsible for the female foeticide are:

• Misuse of originally designed technologies for detecting genetic and metabolic disorders or chromosomal abnormalities or certain congenital malformations or sex linked disorders of the fetus, such as Amniocentesis,Ultrasonography, sex selection through In Vitro Fertilization (IVF), Pre-Implantation Genetic Screening PGS), Pre-Implantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) and sperm-sorting, are used for Prenatal sex determination of the fetus, this has proliferated the selective abortions of the female fetus.
• Misuse of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act in 1971, which was amended in 2002, allowed abortion till 20 weeks of gestation period in instances where "the continuance of the pregnancy would involve grave injury to her physical or mental health and a risk to the life of the pregnant woman. "This has been misused; illegal abortions still outnumber legal abortions. The reporting of cases under the MTP Act has also been a problem.
• Preference for son over daughter due to financial security, psychological pressure on mother from husband and in-laws, relatives, Society if there is no son in the family, they taunt or come to console that they are feeling sad whenever a daughter is born and after saying everything they used to say don't worry nowadays both son and daughter are equal.
• Poverty, increasing unemployment, and inflation in the economy lead to unaffordability to raise a child, and discrimination in child care and nutrition.
• Social and cultural practices like the Dowry system in India makes daughter an unaffordable burden in India.
• Due to Illiteracy and unawareness, people are unaware of the power and role of women in today's era.
• The patriarchal necessity of heir, according to Hindu traditions, only sons are allowed to perform the funeral of their parents; even nowadays, people believe that if a son performs the funeral of their parents, they attain 'salvation'(moksha).
• Impact of family planning programs, families want one or two children and generally prefer male children over female.
• The low status of women in Society.
• Due to increasing Violence against women, there is an additional duty on the family for their physical safety and to protect women's dignity.
• Unavailability of birth control measures.
• Lack of proper implementation of the Prevocation and Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques(PCPNDT)Act, 1994, which prevented illegal prenatal sex determination of the fetus.
• Unreporting and no permanent cancellation of licenses of the hospitals and clinics which do such prenatal sex determination tests.

Female Infanticide

Female infanticide means the intentional killing of a girl child after her birth within the age of 0-1 year.

In United Nations Developmental Programmes Gender Inequality IndexUNDP's GII, 2018, India was ranked 135 out of 187 Countries.

The Census of 2011 recorded the lowest-ever sex ratio of 914 between the age group of 0-6 years, with nearly 3 million girls missing, from nearly 78.8 million in 2001 to 75.8 million in 2011.

According to the Census of India, 2011 and Census of India,1991, the child sex ratio in India has declined from 945 females per 1000 males in 1991 to 919 females per 1000 males in 2011. Haryana has the lowest sex Ratio according to the Census of India, 2011.

The various factors responsible for the female infanticide are:

• Preference for son over daughter due to financial security, psychological pressure on mother from husband and in-laws, relatives, Society if there is no son in the family, they taunt or come to console that they are feeling sad whenever a daughter is born and after saying everything they used to say don't worry nowadays both son and daughter are equal.
• Social and cultural practices like the Dowry system in India makes daughter an unaffordable burden in India.
• Poverty with an inability to afford to raise a child, discrimination in child care and nutrition.
• Due to Illiteracy and unawareness, people are unaware of the power and role of women in today's era.
• Child marriage
• The patriarchal necessity of heir, according to Hindu traditions, only sons are allowed to perform the funeral of their parents; even nowadays, people believe that if a son performs the funeral of their parents, they attain 'salvation'(moksha).
• Children born to unmarried mothers lack reliable, safe, and unaffordable birth control, and a child is born to a rape survivor.
• The low status of women in Society.
• Many such cases are not reported even if the mother knows that the girl child was killed by her husband or in-laws just to save the family, and these criminals are not punished
• Deformed infants.
• Due to increasing Violence against women, there is an additional duty on the family for their physical safety and to protect women's dignity.
• Impact of family planning programs, families want one or two children and generally prefer male children over.
• Case law : Geetabai Tukaram Ambre v State of Maharashtra, 1998

The mother of a newborn baby girl was convicted under Section 318 of the IPC, 1860 because she intentionally tried to dispose of the body of her new born babygirl to erase the evidence of giving birth. The mother of the new born child was unmarried and she has committed the crime because of the social compulsion,, and her intention was clear.

Female Genital Mutilation

Female genital mutilation means the partial or total removal of the external genitalia of a female or other injury to the genital organs of a female for non-medical reasons. It is practiced when the girl is seven years old in India by the Dawoodi Bohras, Sulemani Bohras, the Alavi Bohras, as well as some Sunni communities in Kerala.

The major factors responsible for female genital mutilation are:

• People believe that religious scripts prescribe the practice, and so it is necessary to do so as it is an act of religious purity.
• The fear of rejection by Society. It is considered a necessary practice to prepare a girl for adulthood and marriage. This practice controls her sexuality to promote premarital virginity and marital fidelity.

Child Marriage

Child marriage is the solemnization of marriage in which the age of the girl is less than eighteen years or the boy is less than twenty-one years.

According to the NCRB in its annual Crime in India ( CII) Report, the number of cases registered in 2021 was 1050, and 785 cases were registered in 2020, which is a 34% increase as compared to 2020.

As compared to 2011, the cases in 2021 increased by more than nine times in a decade.

Various factors responsible for child marriage are:

• In poverty, poor and socially backward families opt for child marriage to have a less economic burden on the family. If she gets married, then there will be one mouth less to feed.
• Avoiding expenditure on female education.
• Due to the Social insecurity of the family members, their daughter will engage in love affairs from another caste, religion, or even if from the same caste and bring shame to the families. So the fathers think that it will be better if she gets married off.
• Lack of awareness and Illiteracy about the negative implications of child marriage at the grass root level.
• Social and cultural practices like the dowry system in India makes daughter an unaffordable burden in India. The burden of dowry is less for child brides.
• The patriarchal mindset of the Society is that there is a need to control female sexuality.
• Due to increasing Violence against women, there is an additional duty on the family for their physical safety and to protect women's dignity so they feel that their daughter is safe when they are married, and she becomes the responsibility of her husband, and then she is less vulnerable to such crimes.
• Legal inconsistencies with personal laws. People also justify the exploitation and abuse that their religion and custom prescribes child marriage, like according to Muslim personal law, a girl can marry once she attains puberty which is 15 years of age.
• Lack of proper implementation of the Prohibition of child marriage Act, 2006.
• Many cases of child marriage remain unreported as the family hides it from the public or Society after knowing also do not register complaints against child marriage as the societal norm has become like that.
• Lack of implementation of the Uniform Civil Code, Article 44 of the Indian Constitution, 1950, which would bring uniformity in the civil laws across India and will apply to all castes, creeds, and faiths.
• Somehow, somewhere COVID-19 pandemic has also attributed to an increase in cases of child marriage. The various factors responsible are more than 12 crore Indians losing jobs during the pandemic, and the resulting economic insecurity limited the ability of parents to provide for their children and forced them to marry their girl child. Closure of schools

The poor families send their children to school so that both education and mid-day meals are provided to children.COVID-19 led to parental deaths, which increased the likelihood of female orphans being married off early.

In some cases, parents feared who would take care of the girl child if they succumbed to COVID-19, so this pushed them to marry their girl child.

And also a lack of proper implementation of the Child Marriage Prohibition Act 2006 during COVID.

• Due to the lack of awareness and proper counseling among young girls about the negative implications on their sexual health, increase in mortality rate, underage pregnancy, increased abortions, handicapped childbirths, premature childbirth, and postpartum death of the child. Jharkhand records the highest percentage of child marriage among girls in India who are getting married before attaining a majority as high as 5.8% according to the survey out by the office of Registrar General and consensus Commissioner, Ministry of Home Affairs.

Kidnapping And Abduction

According to the latest National Crimes Records Bureau (NCRB),2021 Maharashtra has witnessed the highest cases in the Country as 3401 girls between 12 to 16 years of age were kidnapped and abducted.

As per NCRB 2021 records, 12,788 minor girls were kidnapped for marriage, which is 21% higher than in 2020, when 10,018 minor girls were kidnapped for marriage.According to data, 7,376 girls were kidnapped by their lovers in 2021.

• Kidnapping and abduction of a girl child for begging, for ransom, for secret and wrongful confinement, to compel her for marriage, to compel her to engage in illicit intercourse , for forced labor in domestic work, for forced prostitution, for pornography.

Sex Trafficking

Sex trafficking is the trafficking of women for any form of sexual exploitation.

According to NCRB records, in 2021, 856 of the trafficked minor girls in Maharashtra were forced into prostitution.

The various factors responsible for sex trafficking are:

• Poor socio-economic conditions of a large number of families led to sending daughters to distant places for work when the traffickers promised employment in big cities, and sometimes, the parents don't even know the nature of work in which the trafficker will be employing the girl.
• The promise of better pay and a comfortable lifestyle by the traffickers.
• Social and cultural practices like the Dowry system in India. Pressure to collect money for dowries.
• Lack of Education, skill, and income opportunities for women in rural areas.
• Sometimes the traffickers trick the parents into thinking that there is a good match for their daughter in a far state, and the parents believe their daughter is to be married without dowry and for a better lifestyle. They agree, and later, the traffickers push them into forceful prostitution.
• Lack of awareness among the parents about the intention of traffickers.
• Increased pornography addiction among the youths.
• Not proper regulation of prostitution.
• A boy convinces the girl to run from home to get married, and when the girl blindly trusts his lover, he sells the girl for sex-related trades.
• Demand for sex at an affordable price. Girls are considered an object of desire.
• Increased pornographic content across the Internet and failure of the government to impose a complete ban.
• The poor conviction rate of the traffickers in cases of sex trafficking.

Stalking

Stalking refers to the repeated and consistent watching and following of the woman over a longer period of time, capturing her photographs, chasing the woman, sending her unwanted letters, messages, and phone calls, threatening to assault her sexually and physically, sending presents, spreading rumors, abusing and harassing the family and friends victim.

The NCRB 2021 recorded 9,285 cases of stalking in 2021.

In India, one case of stalking is being reported every 57 minutes, says 2021, NCRB records.

The various factors responsible for stalking are:

• Stalking of women in order to take revenge on her or family due to any personal issues such as Divorce, property disputes, or rejection of the proposal to be in a relationship.
• In some cases, the stalker assumes that the victim is in love with him.
• One of the reasons is portraying of stalking by the filmmakers is a cool and romantic behavior that influences the young mind, and they mimic it in real life.
• Stalkers may be suffering from psychological disorders such as delusion or schizophrenia.
• In some cases, the stalker is attracted to and obsessed with the victim sexually and mentally.
• Use of drugs and alcohol by the stalker.
• In some cases, the stalker follows the victims in order to make plans for the attack and sexual harassment of the victims.
• In many cases, the victim does not register a complaint against the stalkers due to the fear that it would shame the family. They do not want to get entangled in a legal case.
• The low conviction rate of the offenders, NCRB data, there has been a dip in conviction rate from 35% in 2020 to 22% in 2021. The percentage of pending trials of stalking cases has increased from 88% in 2017 to 22% in 2021.

Sexual Harassment Of Women

Sexual harassment consists of any unwelcome sexual advances, pressure for sexual favors in return for employment benefits, the display of sexually offensive content, posters, cartoons, and any form of verbal transgressions to sexual abuse or assault. Harassment can occur in different places, such as the workplace, the home, schools, universities, colleges, and public transport.

The various factors responsible for the sexual harassment of women are:

• Perception of crime as not serious enough to report.
• In the Society in which men were brought up where it was OK to discriminate, men's thinking, like women's highest calling is to please men, women take harassment as a compliment, male dominated society.
• Lack of moral and ethical values in today's world, where extramarital affairs and one-night stands are widely accepted, it is easier for men to indulge in harassment.
• One of the major reasons is the silence of the victims in the majority of situations. Very few raise their voices against it. Low trust in the redressal system, fear of facing victim blaming, fear of revenge from perpetrators, shame to the family, they did not want to create a scene, fear of losing employment, and social stigma are the reasons which led to the encouragement of men to do such acts.
• The patriarchal mindset of Society where women are taught to tolerate and be habituated against these crimes, and mostly, these crimes are being committed by their relatives in their homes. In most cases, the child is not even aware of what's happening to her.
• Lack of awareness and Illiteracy.
• Unemployment and poverty.
• The low status of women in Society.
• Lack of safety in public transport.
• Not proper implementation of Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act, 2013.
• Not filing of complaints by the victims.
• The low conviction rate of the crime.

Child Pornography

Child pornography refers to displaying or transmitting sexually explicit content of a child in the computerized form, for example, pictures, sounds, and videos.

The various factors responsible for child pornography are:

• The person viewing is a pedophile, hebephile.
• The monetary benefit to child molesters and pornographers by the sale of child pornographic material.
• Easy availability and affordability of these videos on the Internet.
• Failure of the government to impose a complete ban on these websites.
• Increased objectification of women.
• The use of alcohol and drugs among youths increased porn addiction.
• Lack of awareness and sex education in India, "sex" is considered a taboo.'
• It is difficult for agencies to detect the activities of child pornography and monitor them effectively.
• Availability of obscene and vulgar content in various OTT platform services.

Rape

Rape can be defined as non-consensual sexual intercourse with a woman. It is the fourth most common crime against women in India. As per the NCRB report, in 2021, 31,677 cases of rape were registered on an average of 86 cases daily, whereas 28,046 cases were in 2020.

Nearly 90% of rape cases are committed by none other than family members, relatives, or people known to the victims.

The various factors responsible for rape are: � Lack of sex education.

• Increased pornography addiction among youths.
• Not reporting the crimes as the family thinks that it would bring shame to the family.
• Low rate of death punishment to the accused.
• In many cases, the accused takes revenge for personal or family issues.
• Increased consumption of alcohol and drugs.
• Low conviction rate.
• With the sluggish court system, many rape cases are pending in the courts.
• Encouraging rape victims to compromise.
• Failure of the government to provide safety measures in public places to women.

Acid Attacks

In the NCRB report, 2021, 176 acid attacks were reported, alongwith 73 cases of attempts to acid attack.
The various factors responsible are:

• In order to take revenge on her or their family due to any personal issues such as Divorce, property disputes, rejection of the proposal to be in a relationship
• Increased consumption of alcohol and drugs.
• Refusal of sexual advances.
• The low conviction rate of the attackers.
• Lack of education of men to respect women.
• The low status of women in society.

Honour Killings

Honor killing is basically the murder of female family members by male family members due to the belief of the perpetrators and Society that the victim has brought dishonor to the family.

The NCRB's 2020 report has recorded 25 cases of honor killing in the year 2019.

The various factors responsible are:

• Refusing to enter into a marriage arranged by the family.
• Desiring to marry by her own choice even if the man is of the same caste.
• Wanting to terminate her marriage even when her husband is abusive or is committing adultery.
• She has suffered sexual assault in the past.
• She has engaged in certain sexual acts either with the opposite or the same sex.
• She married by her own choice after running from home.
• The patriarchal mindset of society is that men need to control the sexuality of the female, and she carries the honor of the family.
• Wrong interpretation of religion and culture.
• Caste system in India.
• High illiteracy rate.
• Absence of specific laws to deal with honor killings to date. The murders come under the category of homicide or manslaughter.
• Sometimes honor killings are committed by a mob, and when an attack is by a mob, it becomes very difficult and tricky to catch the real culprit.
• Many of the cases of honor killings go unreported as the family members only kill the girl and dispose of her body and then file a complaint at the police station that their daughter is missing. Not a single member of the family raises a voice against these criminals.
• Khap panchayats are mainly responsible for most of the honor killings as they order the killings, and the male family members just execute the order.

Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying refers to harassing, stalking, blackmailing, threatening, sending messages, online abuse, and harassment posting harmful, false, sexual content related to the woman by the use of cyberspace, social media, and other technological advancements.

The NCRB recorded an increase in cybercrimes against women from 8,306 cases in 2019 to10,521 cases in 2021.

The various factors responsible for cyberbullying are:

• Increased addiction to the Internet.
• Revenge for any personal issues, such as a rejection of the proposal to be in a relationship.
• Jealousy.
• Hate towards a particular religion or community.
• Peer pressure.
• According to NCRB data, there has been a 36% increase in cyberbullying against women in India during the pandemic, and somewhere the reason is increased dependence on the Internet.
• Use of drugs and alcohol by the accused.
• In many cases, the victim does not register a complaint against the stalkers due to the fear that it would bring shame to the family. They do not want to get entangled in a legal case.
• The low conviction rate of the offenders.
• Not proper implementation of the laws.
• Lack of awareness about cyber safety and security.
• Increase in fake accounts.
• Absence of technical knowledge among police and people.
• Difficulty in the investigation of the crimes due to jurisdictional complexity.

Witchcraft

Witchcraft is a superstitious belief that the woman has some negative supernatural powers to influence a person's body, mind, or property. Such a woman is subjected to physical, mental, and sexual abuse like being labeled as a witch, raped, humiliated, tortured, burned alive, and murdered by Society.

According to the NCRB reports, in 2021, three states in Madhya Pradesh (18), Chhattisgarh(20) & Telangana(11) account for 49 out of the 68 registered cases of Witchcraft.

The various factors responsible for Witchcraft are:

• Illiteracy and lack of education is the major cause of Witchcraft.
• Religious and superstitious beliefs of the people.
• Land and personal disputes are also the reasons.
• Lack of access to healthcare facilities in rural areas. When women suffer abortions, problems in pregnancy, menstrual problems, or any other health issues of any person, they go to Ojhas as they consider them to have supernatural powers to cure their diseases and to extort money from the people. He just blames any woman who is mostly a widow or does not have any child, she is a witch, and she has done black magic.
• Failure of the government to implement laws preventing Witch practices in different states.

Dowry Death

Dowry death refers to the death of the woman within seven years of marriage by the in-laws, or sometimes the woman herself commits suicide when she is unable to bear the torture of her in-laws' demands for dowry.

As per the NCRB Report, 2021, 6,589 cases of dowry deaths were there.

The various factors responsible are:

• The patriarchal mindset of Society is where women are taught to tolerate and be habituated against these crimes, and mostly these crimes are being committed by their relatives in their homes. The patriarchal structure of society has always treated women as subordinate to men, and men are always considered superior with all powers in their hands. This has given rise to such a social evil like the dowry system. Women have always been treated as an object in society, which makes them easy prey for such patriarchs to be their victims.
• Lack of education and awareness among people.
• Social and cultural practices like the Dowry system in India.
• Occasionally, the bridegroom's family demands a dowry before the advent of the marriage. However, greedy in-laws who are unsatisfied with the dowry demand dowry even after the marriage rites have been completed. This is an exceptionally effective way to reinforce the bridegroom's power over his wife because the shame and dishonor associated with failed marriages obligates the bride and her family to meet the dowry demands. In some of these cases, the economic status of women's families is low, due to which they fail to fulfill the demand of in-laws, and due to this, mostly young girls who are unable to handle the torture done by the husband and their relatives commit suicide.

Domestic Violence

Domestic Violence refers to all forms of Violence, be it physical, mental, or sexual, against the woman who lives in a domestic relationship with her. This also includes violence in a live-in relationship by the partner.

The various factors responsible are:

• Social and cultural practices like the Dowry system in India, due to which there is high demand for dowry.
• Consumption of alcohol and drugs by the husband.
• Patriarchal mindset of the Society and the superiority complex among men.
• Poverty and unemployment of the husband.
• Illiteracy and lack of education. In some cases, when woman is unable to give birth to a child or she has only a female child, she is subjected to continuous torture by the husband and his relatives. Even if some medical problem is there in the husband, the relatives do not ask the husband to visit the doctor only the wife is subjected to torture. Even when it is scientifically known that a male is responsible for the sex determination of the child but then also women are subjected to cruelty and torture by the husband and his relatives each time a female child is born.
• Less educated women are more likely to suffer domestic violence as they have no means to secure their independence and avoid Violence.
• Silence of women is one of the factors just to save their marriage, to save themselves from the tag of "divorcee", embarrassment, financial dependency, fear of retaliation, and victim-blaming, and women are taught to tolerate everything from the starting.
• Not proper implementation of the Protection of women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005, and section 498 of the Indian penal code.
• The majority of cases of domestic violence are closed due to a lack of evidence. Due to this, the criminal husband goes unpunished, this sets a bad example in society, and no deterrence is there in society.

Written By: Komal Gupta, B.A. L.LB. Sixth semester, Central University of Kashmir