Kishan Reddy, Union Minister of Home Affairs on 4 December, said that crimes against women are not increasing in the country. He said this in a written statement to the question posed in Rajya Sabha about the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) released in October this year.
The ministry hinted at the data released by the NCRB which cited 3,59,849 crimes committed against women in 2017, as opposed to 3,38,954 crimes in 2016.
This comes days after Hyderabad veterinarian’s gang-rape created strong ripples across the nation and resulted in pressure on the Government about women’s safety.
The Home Ministry enumerated the steps they have taken to ensure women’s safety in the country. In the statement, Reddy said that they have alerted the Emergency Support System to respond immediately during emergencies.
They also added that the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act of 2013 has been put to action and the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2018, has been passed which also includes the death penalty for the rape of girls below 12 years.
The ministry said that it launched a National Database on Sexual Offenders in September 2018, an online analytic tool for the police to track cases.