Murders, Rapes, Suicides, Cyber Crime: Key Data From 2021 NCRB Report

3 murders every hour, a crime against women every 74 seconds: These are some of the numbers in the NCRB report.

NCRB's 'Crime in India' report 2021 reveals that India saw 80 murders every day on average in 2021.

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A crime against women was registered every 74 seconds on average in 2021. Similarly, 80 murders were committed every day in India. These stats came to light in the 2021 ‘Crime in India’ report published by Union Home Ministry's National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).

Here are the key figures:

Murder Cases in 2021

In 2021, India recorded 29,272 murder cases. In 2020, the number was 29,193, and in 2019, it was 28,915. The 2021 data showed a marginal increase of 0.3% over 2020.

Among the states, Uttar Pradesh registered the highest number of murder cases at 3,717, followed by Bihar at 2,799, and Maharashtra at 2,330. This was followed by Madhya Pradesh at 2,034 and West Bengal at 1,884. Sikkim had the lowest murder cases at 14.

Among the cities, Delhi recorded the maximum number of murder cases in 2021 at 454. Kozhikode in Kerala recorded the lowest number of murder cases in 2021 at 5.

Delhi was followed by Mumbai with 162 murder cases, Chennai with 161 such cases, Bengaluru with 155 cases, Surat with 121 cases, Jaipur with 118 cases, Lucknow with 101 cases, and Pune with 100 cases.

A total of 1,955 murder cases were registered in metropolitan cities in 2021.

Motives Behind Murders

The main motives behind the murders were disputes (849 cases), personal enmity (380 cases), and love affairs (122 cases). Nationally, the main motives were disputes (9,765 cases), vendetta (3,782 cases), and gain (1,692 cases).

Crimes Against Women

India saw a total of 4,28,278 instances of crimes against women in 2021 – a 15 percent increase from the previous year.

In 2021, on an average, there was one case of crime against women registered every 74 seconds in India.

Of these, 'cruelty by husband' saw the most number of cases – almost 32 percent – followed by cases registered under 'assault on women with intent to outrage her modesty' (20 percent).

Delhi Most Unsafe City, Again

Two minor girls were raped every day in 2021 in the national capital, which was the most unsafe metropolitan city for women across the country, according to the latest NCRB report.

Delhi also recorded 13,892 cases of crimes against women in 2021, a significant surge of more than 40 percent compared to 2020 when the figure was 9,782, the data showed.

What Does the 2021 Suicide Data Say

A total of 1,64,033 people died by suicide in 2021 across the country.

Daily wage earners, followed by self-employed people, unemployed people, and those involved in the farming sector were the top categories of people who died by suicide in 2021, when India was in the grip of the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 45,026 females also died by suicide during the same period.

Maharashtra Reports Highest Suicides in Farming Sector

As many as 10,881 people involved in the farming sector – comprising 5,318 farmers, cultivators, and 5,563 agricultural labourers – died by suicide last year. This accounts for 6.6 percent of the total suicide victims in India.

On the other hand, certain states and Union Territories did not report any cases of death by suicide among people in the farming sector. These include West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Tripura, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Chandigarh, Lakshadweep, and Puducherry.

Cyber Crime

India registered 52,974 cyber crime cases in 2021, an increase of over 5% from 2020 (50,035 cases) and over 15% from 2019 (44,735 cases).

Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Assam account for more than 70% of cybercrime incidents. The average rate of cyber crime incidents (per one lakh population) in the country was recorded at 3.9.

Crimes and Atrocities Against SC/STs