Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday said there has been an increase in the number of crimes against women, most of which related to cruelty by husband or relatives, besides stalking in cyberspace and morphing of images for pornographic contents.
Addressing a meeting of the consultative committee of MPs attached to the Ministry, Singh said a number of steps have been taken by the government to tackle crimes against women by amending the criminal law to provide for a quicker trial and enhanced punishment for criminals committing sexual assault of extreme nature against women.
There has been an increase in the number of crimes against women, he told the MPs. The Ministry also made a detailed presentation on the subject – Human Trafficking and Safety and Security of Women – for the members.
Quoting the National Crime Records Bureau, the presentation indicated that the maximum number of crimes against women registered was related to cruelty by husband or relatives, which constitutes over 1/3rd of the total registered crimes followed by assault against women to outrage their modesty and kidnapping.
“Crimes against women in the cyber space are also on the rise and women can be victimised. Some try to defame women by sending obscene e-mails, stalking them by using chat rooms, developing pornographic videos where women are depicted adversely, morphing of images for pornographic content, etc,” an official release of the Ministry stated.
Referring to the Home Ministry’s campaign ‘Operation Smile’ launched in January this year in the country to rescue missing children, the Home Minister said that after its remarkable achievement, a similar campaign titled ‘Operation Muskaan’ was rolled out in July and over 27,000 children were rescued.
Singh said his Ministry had taken various initiatives such as setting up of Anti-Human Trafficking Units (AHTUs) to investigate cases related to human trafficking and capacity building of law enforcement agencies and regular meeting with State Nodal officers.
The Ministry has also issued various comprehensive advisories to all States, UTs, border states and
Border Security Force, Sashastra Seema Bal to involve in district crime meetings to improve the effectiveness in tackling human trafficking and to increase the response of the law enforcement machinery, he said.
Working on out-of-turn promotion to police sportspersons: HM
The government is working on a proposal to grant out-of-turn promotions to meritorious and medal-winning sportspersons who work in police and paramilitary forces, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said on Friday. Singh was speaking at the closing ceremony of the 8th All-India Police Badminton championship organised by the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB). He said a proposal in this regard is pending before the Ministry and “he will see to it” that such a “morale-boosting” policy initiative is implemented soon. “In many cases, it is seen that out-of-turn promotion to these sportspersons is not given. We are working on this,” Singh said.