30% Rise in Sexual Abuse Cases in Shelter Homes: NCRB Data

According to the NCRB’s Crime in India 2018 report, 707 incidents of sexual harassment were reported in 2018.

Image used for representation.

(Photo: Thomson Reuters Foundation)

The number of sexual harassment incidents in shelter homes have increased by 30 percent in 2018 over the last year, after reports of sexual abuse from a Muzaffarpur shelter home shocked the country, a Hindustan Times report said, citing National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data.

707 incidents of sexual harassment were reported in 2018 in shelter homes in India - a 30 percent rise over the 544 instance in 2017, according to the NCRB’s Crime in India 2018 report.

According to the report, the maximum number of shelter homes have been reported from Uttar Pradesh (288), followed by Maharashtra (161), Andhra Pradesh (62), MP (61) and Haryana (49).

Surprisingly, not even a single incident is included in the NCRB report, the Hindustan Times report said. An official was quoted by the daily as saying that states are usually left out as they either don’t share the information or delay it, due to which relevant data gets missed out on.

Data under the category of sexual harassment was included in the NCRB report for the first time in the 2017 report, which was released in October 2019.

The report also revealed that there were 730 reports of incidents of sexual harassment of women in the public transport system and 401 reports of such incidents at the workplace in 2018, up from 599 and 479 in 2017.

There were 126 acid attacks on 131 women in 2018 and 26 unsuccessful attempts to injure/kill women by throwing acid on them.

(With inputs from Hindustan Times)