rape-ARTICLEDelhi is once again in the limelight for all the wrong reasons. The rape of a 51-year-old Danish tourist in the nation’s capital has once again highlighted the lack of security for women in India. While the police have already nabbed two suspects, one of the most startling details of the case is that the crime spot is barely 400 metres from the nearest police booth.

The issue of women’s safety had been a major factor in the state elections last month, which saw the defeat of the Sheila Dixit-led Congress Government and the entry of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) led by Arvind Kejriwal. There seems to be no let up in crimes against women even after AAP came to power, though improving overall law and order would have taken time.

The gang rape of a 23-year-old trainee physiotherapist in Delhi in December 2012, who later succumbed to her injuries, caused alarm bells to go off all over the country. As IndiaSpend had reported earlier, Justice Verma Committee had submitted a report on how to increase protection for women across the country. In light of the latest news, it seems the report wasn’t really paid much attention.

In an earlier article, IndiaSpend had highlighted a 69% decadal increase in crimes against women. There was also a 52% decadal increase in rapes. The chart below shows the number of cases of rape from 2002 to 2012.

While there has been a 52% decadal jump in the number of cases of rape, in 2012, there has been a 3% increase over the previous year. The chart below shows the year on year percentage change in number of rapes.

The Aam Aadmi Party has now asked for the Delhi Police to be put under the control of the state Government. The question is, could a change like this really bring down the number of rape cases?