Delhi worst among metros in crimes against children

NEW DELHI: Data released by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) for 2024 reveals a significant decline in the number of crimes recorded in Delhi, even as specific categories of violent and targeted offences continued to pose a formidable challenge to the law enforcement.

While the aggregate numbers of crimes, released on Wednesday, suggested a drop-off from a post-pandemic surge, a deep dive into the 2024 statistics uncovers a complex narrative of shifting safety dynamics in India’s major metropolitan hubs.

The most striking takeaway from the macro-level data is the sharp 15.1% decline in overall IPC and BNS crimes compared with the previous year. After hitting a peak of over 3.2 lakh cases in 2023 — a nearly 8% jump from 2022 — the number fell to almost 2.8 lakh in 2024.

While this downward trend in volume is a welcome statistical relief, granular data regarding victimology suggests that the intensity of crimes in Delhi remains a point of high concern.

While analysing the human cost of offences, the data reveals a persistent gap between the number of cases filed and the number of lives affected. In 2024, crimes against women accounted for 7,827 cases, yet the number of survivors/victims was 7,904, indicating that many criminal acts involved multiple women in a single incident. In 2024, 1,058 rape cases were registered, but the number of survivors/victims was 1,089, according to the data.

This pattern is even more pronounced in the most violent categories of crimes. For instance, the 504 murder cases recorded during the year resulted in 522 victims. Similarly, the 1,521 road accidents reported led to 1,658 deaths, suggesting a high lethality rate in urban traffic accidents.

These figures highlight a sobering reality: While the case count might have dropped in 2024, the impact on the community was amplified by the number of individuals suffering from a single breach of law.

The year was particularly busy for investigators dealing with street crimes in Delhi, with property-related offences dominating their workload. Household theft emerged as the most frequent crime: 10,690 cases were reported and 10,705 victims were involved. Burglary, often a more invasive and planned crime, trailed closely with 8,968 cases.

This suggests that residential and commercial security remains vulnerable despite the overall dip in Delhi-wide crime.

Vehicle theft, a perennial headache for urban dwellers, saw 39,976 cases recorded in 2024. There were 1,510 reported cases of robbery. Extortion remained relatively low at 228 cases, though it still affected 232 victims. Crimes committed by juveniles totalled 2,306 in 2024, including 144 cases of murder, 526 robberies and 217 incidents of snatching. There were a total of 5,417 kidnapping and abduction cases affecting 5,603 victims.

However, the most alarming data points emerge when we pivot to the safety of the most vulnerable: the children. In the competitive hierarchy of metropolitan crime, Delhi maintains a grim lead in this regard, with 7,662 cases of crimes against children in 2024. To put this in perspective, Mumbai recorded 3,374 such cases, and Bangalore 2,026 cases.

This disparity is also reflected in the case of abduction of children. Delhi reported 5,404 such cases, dwarfing Mumbai’s 1,831 and Bangalore’s 1,136. The data suggests that for every child kidnapped in Bengaluru, nearly five were kidnapped in Delhi.

The trend of Delhi’s dominance in different categories of violent crimes extends to the realm of sexual offences. At 1,058, the city recorded the highest number of rape cases among all metropolitan cities, with 1,089 people at the receiving end.

This is more than double the number in Jaipur, which ranked second among the cities with 497 cases, and significantly higher than Mumbai’s 411 cases. Even in the most heinous “overlap” crimes — cases involving murder alongside gang rape or rape — Delhi topped the ignominious list with six cases and seven victims, followed by Chennai and Bengaluru.

While the gap between Delhi and Mumbai narrows slightly when considering POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) cases, the capital, at 1,553 cases, is ahead of Mumbai’s 1,416. Bengaluru, by contrast, appears significantly safer in this metric with just 594 cases.