Crime against women

The growth and development of a nation depends on the socio-economic status of its community. In our country, women constitute around 49 percent of the total country's population of approximately nine hundred million people. But studies revealed that from century's women have been victims of exploitation by male-dominated society. Women in our country have been victims of ill-treatment, humiliation, torture, exploitation, rape murder, etc. from long period of time. According to the Constitution of India, women are the legal citizens of the country. To provide social justice is the keystone of the constitution of India. It represents equal rights with men. But the actual situation is far from this. In the modern society, crime against women is the most pervasive abuse in the country. Crime against women is not new rather it is a common evil in the Indian society. It represents the form of assertion of dominance and use of greater physical strength of men over women. A woman faced terrifying problems both within the family and outside family structure. It has been examined by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) that over 32000 murders, 36500 molestation cases, 19000 rape and 7500 dowry deaths are the violent crimes reported in India in 2006 against women. Thus, current condition of women has worsened their lives. The present paper is introspection about the intensity of crime committed against women in India over the period of five years. The paper also highlights head-wise incidents of crime against women and compare reported incidents of crime (both under IPC and SLL) for a period from 2008 to 2012 respectively. The percentage of crime against women is also compared with total IPC crimes so as to depict the actual position of crime against women in India. The study is based upon secondary data and has been collected from reports, “Crime in India”, published by National Crime Records Bureau annually. The data has been analysed by using percentage analysis and interpretations were made accordingly. The data of cases mentioned under different heads revealed that all the crime heads showed a rising trend except the incidents reported under Sati Prevention Act, 1987 and Importation of Girls-section 366-B IPC. Further, the cases registered under Kidnapping and Abduction (section 363–373 IPC), Torture (section 498-A IPC) and Molestation (section 354 IPC) had showed a sharp increase over the period of five years. Thus, in order to protect the women's from this evil, it is required that the code of laws related to crimes against women should be amended. Women's should be made aware about the legislation through awareness programmes because the law alone cannot be able to curb this menace of “Crime Against Women.”