51 Heinous Crimes Against Women in India Sanjay K. Singh1* Indian Institute of Management Lucknow Abstract This paper will analyze crimes against women in India at the national as well as the state and union territory levels. The crimes will include kidnapping and the abduction of women, rape, and dowry deaths. We will identify the major issues related to such heinous crimes and discuss potential countermeasures. The pri- mary source of data for the study is Crime Against Women in India, 1991 to 2014, published by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of In- dia, New Delhi. Keywords: Heinous Crimes, Rape, Kidnapping and Abduction, Dowry Death, Women's Safety, India Introduction Women play a major role in the socioeconomic growth of society; a nation can't prosper until women are safe. Although women's rights are secured under the Indian constitution, their vulnerability hasn't de- creased over time. In fact, incidences of violent crime against women that fall under the Indian penal code have increased by 46% over the past decade. In 2014, the latest year for which data are available, every day an average of 101 women were raped, 157 women were kidnapped and 23 killed over dowry. Moreover, crime against women in India goes underreported, especially in rape cases, due to social stigma at- tached to it. Bihar and Uttar Pradesh are known for their extremely underreported crime rate (Gupta, 2014). Moreover, many women do not complain against crime because of family honor. Most of the time, offenders are family members or friends. Often, police do not give a fair hearing, particularly to women in weaker sections of society; even if cases get registered, justice is delayed or denied due to lack of evi- 1* Professor, Economics and Business Environment Area, Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow, India . Address for correspondence: sanjay@iiml.ac.in. Volume 41, Number 3, Fall 2016
52 Sanjay K. Singh dence, particularly in rape and kidnapping cases. Obstruction of justice increases more if offenders are socially, economically, and politically powerful. The main aim of this study is to analyze the crimes against women in India at the national as well as at the state and union territory levels. It also attempts to identify the major issues related to crime against wom- en and discuss countermeasures that would have potential to curtail the crimes. The study primarily focuses on heinous crimes like kidnapping and abduction, rapes, and dowry deaths. The primary source of data for the study is Crime Against Women in India, 1991 to 2014 published by the National Crime Records Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs, Govern- ment of India, New Delhi. The analysis shows that, from 1991 to 2014, the total for heinous crimes against women in India grew 5.9% per year. During the same period, kidnapping and abduction grew 6.9% per year, rape cases in- creased 5.9% per year, and dowry deaths increased 2.2% per year. Ac- cordingly, the incidence of heinous crimes per 100,000 women in the country increased from 6.7