Crime in India Report 2021

Registered violent crimes increased across India in 2021, after a decrease in these major offences in 2020 due to pandemic-related restrictions. Violent crimes include murder, dowry death, grievous hurt, kidnapping and crimes against children, rape and others.

This was revealed by the National Crime Records Bureau’s (NCRB) recent ‘Crime in India‘ report, which includes data for 2021.

Key highlights of the report –

• Overall registered cognisable crimes —
  • • The number of overall registered cognisable crimes saw a 7.6% decrease from 66 lakh in 2020 to 60.9 lakh in 2021.
    • The crime rate (crimes per 1 lakh people) also decreased from 487.8 in 2020 to 445.9 in 2021.
    • The decline in overall crimes in 2021 can be attributed to a sharp decrease in cases registered under Section 188 of IPC (disobedience to order duly promulgated by a public servant).
    • Such cases were registered mainly over violations of COVID-19 norms.
• Crime rate in States —
  • • In 2021, the rate of violent crimes (per 1 lakh people) among major States was the highest in Assam (76.6 violent crimes per 1 lakh people) followed by Delhi and West Bengal.
    • The rate was lowest in Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
• Crime against women —
  • • It rose by 15.3% in 2021 from the previous year, with 4,28,278 cases registered last year.
    • A majority of these cases (31.8 %) fall in the category of “Cruelty by husband or his relatives’’, followed by “Assault on women with intent to outrage her modesty”, kidnapping and abduction and rape (7.4 %).
    • Nagaland stood out with the lowest number and rate (5.5 %) of crimes against women registered in the past three years – 43 in 2019, 39 in 2020 and 54 in 2021.
    • It also had the lowest crime rate against women for 2021 at 5.5 %.
• Sedition —
  • • 76 cases for sedition were registered in 2021 in the country under IPC Section 124A (73 in 2020), of which the maximum (29) was in Andhra Pradesh.
    • For Andhra Pradesh, this was in sharp contrast to 2020, when no sedition case was recorded in the state.
• Cybercrimes —
  • • According to the most recent NCRB report, Telangana (10,303), followed by UP and Karnataka, leads in the number of recorded cyber offences.
    • Also, Telangana has the highest rate of cybercrime (27.3%) in India, followed by Assam and Karnataka.
    • For the second year in a row, Sikkim recorded no cybercrime cases in 2021.
• Suicide by farmers & Crime against children —
  • • Suicide — 120 deaths per million population (the highest level ever recorded)
    • At the national level, the number of suicides increased by 7.17 per cent from the years 2020 to 2021.
    • Daily wage earners remained the largest profession-wise group among suicide victims in 2021
    • The overall share of “Persons engaged in the farming sector” among the total recorded suicides stood at 6 per cent during 2021
    • Maximum suicide in Maharastra.
    • Reasons — Mainly being Pandemic-induced mental health issues, Family Problems (other than marriage-related problems), Marriage Related Problems, and Illness.

About the ‘National Crime Records Bureau’ –

• NCRB is an Indian government agency (headquartered in New Delhi) established in 1986 and is part of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Government of India.
• It was set up based on the recommendation of the National Police Commission, 1977 and a Task force, 1985.
• It is responsible for collecting and analysing crime data (as defined by the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Special and Local Laws) as well as serving as a repository of such information to aid investigators in tracing crimes and criminals.
• NCRB was entrusted with the responsibility for monitoring, coordinating and implementing the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems (CCTNS) project in the year 2009.
• In 2017, NCRB launched the National Digital Police Portal, which allows police officers to look for a criminal or suspect on the CCTNS database and gives citizens with services such as online complaint filing, etc.
• Along with the Crime in India report (oldest and most prestigious publication brought out by NCRB), It also publishes – Prisons Statistics India Report.