Crime in India

ALL statistics in India are notoriously unreliable, the statistics of crime being more so. This is because for every reported case, there are scores which go unreported. Nevertheless, the 19th issue of ‘Crime in India’ is an improvement on the previous attempts, though the tables, charts, graphs and diagrams only marginally help “to present a more meaningful assessment of the various facets of crime in India”. The undoubted fact is that crime has increased disproportionately to the increase in population. From 1960 to 1971, the population increased by 27.4 per cent, while crime increased by 57.1 per cent. The highest increase was in dacoity cases, followed by robbery. The incidence of murder also increased. State-wise, Uttar Pradesh emerges as the most crime-ridden state in the country, accounting for 25 per cent of all crimes reported. It is some consolation to know that the incidence of crime in Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab was far below the all-India average, being 82.2, 72.7 and 84.5, respectively, as compared to 173.3 for the country. On the other hand, the crime rate per one lakh population in the UTs of Delhi, Chandigarh, Pondicherry and the Andamans was much higher than the all-India average, Delhi having the highest (714.3), followed by Chandigarh (486.77). This is alarming, especially when the report says that among the UTs, “Chandigarh and Delhi are heavily policed areas, the number of policemen per sq km being 1,342.1 and 1,141.7, respectively.”