Crime against women on rise: IG

VISAKHAPATNAM: There is a marked increase in crime against women in the past few years in the country, according to Tejdeep Kaur Menon, inspector-general of police, AP Special Protection Force.
Kaur was addressing students at a seminar, ''Popular Talk on Managing Crime Against Women'', organised at Andhra University''s Department of Commerce and Management Studies on Thursday.
Quoting a study on crime against women in India, she said that the crime was on the rise by 4.1 per cent in 1999 and 13.3 per cent in 1998 over previous years. There was an increase of 5,502 cases in 2000 when compared to the previous year.
Kaur said that Lakshadweep was the only region where not a single incident of crime against women has been reported in 2000. "If we take the national average, 14.1 women per every one lakh were complaining of the crime against them in 2000," she added.
Housewives accounted for 52 per cent of the total female suicide cases while in case of married women (both housewives and working women), it accounts for as high as 66 per cent. A majority of women who ended life were in 15-29 years age group, while male victims were in the age group 30 and 44 years.
Forty-six per cent of the suicide victims were having less than middle school education. "Women try to drone, hang or immolate themselves in suicide cases. It is seen that social and economic causes led most males to commit suicides while emotional and personal factors drove females to end their life," Tejdeep said.