Delhi reports over 1,300 crimes against women in five months

New Delhi: The Delhi Police has registered over 1,300 cases of crimes against women in the first five months of the year, of which as many as 855 cases have been solved, as per the latest data available with the city police.

The data recorded up to May shows that as many as 520 rape cases were reported, of which 407 have been solved; whereas 670 cases of molestation were reported, of which police claimed to have solved 391 or 58 per cent. Apart from rape and molestation, as many as 129 cases of eve-teasing were also reported till May, of which 57 have been solved to date.

Women's harassment through social media platforms has also emerged as a key issue. The Delhi Commission for Women had also issued notice to major social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok) seeking details of the standard operating procedure used by them for dealing with content promoting violence and harassment in May.

According to the notice, they have taken suo-motu cognizance of the rising trend of using social media platforms to post abusive and provocative content. It is seen that a large number of videos, photos and posts depicting violence and harassment and especially violence against women and children are being posted and shared on these social media platforms. "While a blanket ban on such platforms is not a solution, it is critical that proper mechanisms are put in place to prevent such posts from being uploaded and if uploaded, the content and the creator should be immediately removed from the platform," the notice had said.

Recently, the Ministry of Home Affairs had approved a scheme to give assistance to states and UTs for setting up women's helpdesks at Rs 1 lakh per police station under the Nirbhaya fund. This scheme will initially be implemented in 10,000 police stations in the country. States and UTs may allocate the funds to the police station, which have a higher incidence of crimes against women or a lack of adequate facilities to cater to the requirement of women and children. The city police have written to its Joint Commissioners of Police, asking them to identify and prepare a list of 120 such police stations in their ranges that would fit this bill and make use of such funds.

As per Delhi Police, a women's helpline number 1091 is also functioning under the jurisdiction of crime women cell police station to attend to calls from women with grievances across Delhi. A total of 5,922 calls have been received during the year 2019 and 2020 (till May).

According to the Special Unit for Women and Children (SPUWAC), they have organised street plays on women's issues at prominent and crowded places on the theme of prevention of sexual assault, eve-teasing and raising awareness about women's rights. So far, 539 street plays have been organised by SPUWAC, through which 21,662 participants had benefited. Last year as many as 5,336 women approached social workers, who provide psycho-social-legal counselling in cases of matrimonial disputes, for their redressal. The Delhi Police said that they have taken various steps to ensure the safety of women in Delhi.