1 out of every 14 people in Delhi has faced crime, says survey

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.