Despite crimes against, women awareness rising

While the number of reports lodged over crime against women is surging in the State the Government officers and those associated with Uttarakhand State women commission ascribe the spike to the rising awareness    among the women.  A day before the State, along with the country, would observe the International Women’s Day, statistics provided by the State Government over the crimes against women reveal that such  crimes are on a spiral  in the plain districts of the state with three districts- Dehradun, Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar- accounting for 70 per cent of total crimes reported  at the state women commission.  Cases vary from 1000 to 1200 for the last few years. As per available reports, 1137cases of crimes against women were reported in 2015-16, 1184 in 2016-17 and 1109 in 2017-18 in the state.

While 441 cases of crimes against women were reported in 2015-16, 445 in 2016-17 and 380 in 2017-18 in Dehradun district  292 in 2015-16, 198 in 2016-17 and 200 in 2017-18 in Haridwar district and  265 in 2015-16, 250 in 2016-17 and 180 in 2017-18 in Udham Singh Nagar district. The remaining 10 districts combined account for 339 such cases in 2015-16, 291 in 2016-17 and 349 in 2017-18. 

Ramindri Mandrawal, secretary of Uttarakhand state women commission, said that reports of crimes against women  being lodged at the commission are on the rise. “However, this must be seen against the backdrop of the rising   awareness among them. We are hosting awareness campaigns across the state all round the year vigorously. We are asking those grappling with domestic problems to approach us. We try to solve things through mutual understanding reached through  counselling. The commission has released a toll free number 181 to enable the women, facing problems, to register their complaints. Besides, we are imparting short duration curses on self- defence, self- employment and the like with the help of government and non-government organisations from time to time at the block and the district levels,” she added.