New Delhi: In view of unabated incidents of crime against women and children, a Parliamentary panel has suggested the Union Home Ministry take up with the Ministry of Education about introducing self-defence training in all educational institutions as part of the regular curriculum right from childhood.
"Similarly, arrangements can be made to organise such training for working women by identifying government office clusters. Delhi police should also encourage residential welfare association and private companies to hold self-defence training programmes and awareness campaign for their women residents/employees at regular intervals," parliamentary committee has suggested in its report.
Significantly, the suggestion made by the Parliamentary panel assumes much more significance at a time when the national crime records bureau (NCRB's) latest data shows that cases of crime against women and children show no respite. Officials said that the matter of imparting self-defence courses in the education institutes has been taken up with the Home Ministry.
NCRB's 2020 data released on Wednesday shows that 3,71,503 cases of crime against women across the country took place last year. The data said that 77 rape cases took place on a daily average across the country last year. The cases of crime against women in 2019 were 4,05,326 and 3,78,236 in 2018. Of the total cases of crime against women, according to the NCRB data, there were 28,046 incidents of rape.
Among the States and Union Territories, the maximum 5,310 rape cases were lodged in Rajasthan in 2020 followed by Uttar Pradesh (2,769), Madhya Pradesh (2,339), Maharashtra (2,062) and Assam (1,657). According to the NCRB data, 85,392 cases of 'assault to outrage modesty' and 3741 cases of 'attempt to rape' took place last year.
Referring to the crime against women and children in the national capital, the parliamentary panel suggested the Delhi police identify such hotspots and their mapping to stop such crime in the national capital. "The home ministry should advise to the States and UTs for identification and mapping of crime hotspots in metropolitan cities under their jurisdiction," the panel said in its report.
Significantly, the parliamentary panel has also criticised the home ministry following the fact that the presence of women in Delhi police is very thin.
The panel has also suggested the home ministry recruit 33 per cent of women staff in the Delhi police.
Read: Crimes against women, children drop in 2020; disobedience cases go up drastically: NCRB
