By Syeda Faiza Kirmani
Hyderabad: Hyderabad has ranked second behind Mumbai on the National Crime Records Bureau’s (NCRB) list of most cases pertaining to stalking among 19 metropolitan cities across India.
The NCRB report 2020 has placed the city second on the list of “increased stalking“. The city has also emerged as the 12th safest out of 19 metropolises and has recorded a decline in the number of crimes against women for the same year.
Metropolitan cities have registered a total of 35,331 cases of crime against women in 2020, showing a decrease of 21.1% over 2019 wherein 44,783 cases were recorded.
As per the report, the country overall recorded 8512 cases of stalking with Mumbai leading at 457 cases.
Despite the SHE Teams making efforts to curb crimes against women in Hyderabad, the city has recorded at least 267 similar cases in 2020. Among other cities, Delhi has recorded 235 cases of stalking and Bangalore has 52 such cases.
“Most of these cases go unreported usually. Awareness campaigns and ease of reporting with SHE Teams have led to an increased number of cases,” Shikha Goel, Additional Commissioner of Police (crimes) was quoted by The Times of India.
The city recorded 2390 cases of crime against women compared to 2755 cases in 2019, which is a decline of 14.1%. The city has a crime rate of 63.5 in terms of gender-related crimes.
According to NCRB, the crime rate is calculated as per one lakh of population.
Among other metropolitan cities, Delhi overall remains the most unsafe city for women despite a 24.1% decline in cases recorded from 12902 in 2019 to 9782 in 2020. Mumbai being the 2nd on the list, also showed a 34.8% decline in the number of cases in the year 2020 as the city recorded 4583 cases.
Among the states, Maharashtra recorded about 2,013 cases under section 354-D of the Indian Penal code, while Telangana recorded 1,436 cases followed by Andhra Pradesh with 956 cases of stalking.
