Every year, the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) compiles and releases crime data from across the country. And each year, the country is outraged. We hold TV debates, engage in social media discourse, blame politicians and the government, and then move on. The real tragedy of the NCRB’s Crime in India 2024 report is that none of this is shocking anymore. The country has become so accustomed to violence against women that such data is kept out of sight, out of mind.
In 2024, India recorded 4,41,534 cases of crimes against women. Of these, the majority were cases of ‘Cruelty by Husband or Relatives’, accounting for 1,20,227 cases.
In 2024, India recorded 4,41,534 cases of crimes against women. Of these, the majority were cases of ‘Cruelty by Husband or Relatives‘, accounting for 1,20,227 cases. Uttar Pradesh reported the highest cases of crimes against women with 66,398 cases, Maharashtra had the second-highest number of cases at 47,954, while Rajasthan recorded 36,563. Delhi recorded an exceptionally high rate of crimes against women, with 130.7 cases per lakh women.
The report also reveals the dismal state of affairs in several states. Telangana recorded 128.6 cases of gender-based violence per lakh women, followed by Odisha, which recorded 118 cases per lakh women. In Bihar, the number of crimes against women increased by more than a third in two years, going from 20,222 cases in 2022 to 27,359 in 2024.
The NCRB 2024 data also sheds light on the rampant sexual violence experienced by women across the country. India recorded 29,536 cases of rape in 2024, of which Rajasthan alone accounted for 4,871 cases. Rajasthan was followed by Uttar Pradesh with 3,209 cases, while Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh recorded 3,091 and 3,061 cases, respectively. One of the most striking figures comes from Himachal Pradesh, which recorded 194 rape cases involving minors, despite its relatively small population.
Society claims marriage is protection, but the data says otherwise
In India, women are raised to believe that marriage will provide them with security. Families often fret if a daughter remains unmarried beyond a certain age. Society has long told women that marriage will offer them ‘protection’ from various socio-economic and safety threats, but the NCRB 2024 data raises an important question: protection from whom?
In 2024, 1,20,227 cases were recorded under the crime head ‘Cruelty by Husband or Relatives’. Uttar Pradesh reported a staggering 21,266 cases, followed by West Bengal, which reported 19,330 cases. 5737 cases of dowry deaths were also recorded. Uttar Pradesh once again topped the list with 2,038 cases, followed by Bihar at 1,078.
The data make clear that the institution of marriage continues to pose risks to the safety of women in India. The romanticised idea of ‘settling down’ not only obscures the unpaid emotional and physical labour extracted from women but also conceals the realities of forced marriage, domestic violence, marital rape, dowry violence, and even murder.
The data makes it clear that marriage remains an unsafe institution for women.. The romanticised idea of ‘settling down’ not only obscures the unpaid emotional and physical labour extracted from women but also conceals the realities of forced marriage, domestic violence, marital rape, dowry violence, and even murder.
The intersection of gender-based violence and caste violence
However, violence does not affect all women equally, with marginalised women suffering higher rates of gender-based violence. In 2024, 4,262 rape cases were reported against Scheduled Caste women in India. Additionally, 2,129 cases were registered under ‘assault on women with intent to outrage her modesty’, along with 525 cases of sexual harassment, and 298 cases of kidnapping and abduction. Similarly, 1,268 rape cases were recorded against Scheduled Tribe women. The data also recorded 613 cases of assault with intent to outrage modesty against women of the Scheduled Tribes, 156 cases of sexual harassment, and seven cases of attempted rape against them.
Such violence is not only gender-based for Dalit and tribal women, but also intersects with caste. Gender-based violence against women belonging to marginalised castes is closely tied to casteism.
Such violence is not only gender-based for Dalit and tribal women, but also intersects with caste. Gender-based violence against women belonging to marginalised castes is closely tied to casteism. The statistics do not even tell the full story, because in patriarchal societies, women are often expected to tolerate violence and live in silence. The NCRB 2024 data reflects the number of registered cases, but it doesn’t account for the number of women against whom crimes were actually committed in the absence of reporting. It doesn’t capture the number of survivors who were forced into ‘compromises’, women who were threatened into withdrawing their complaints, children who never got a chance to speak up due to their families silencing them, or those who never had access to legal remedies to begin with. This is especially true for Dalit and tribal women, for whom access to legal recourse is structurally and systematically harder due to entrenched biases.
When justice is out of reach
While gender-based violence against women is rampant in the country, the justice system’s response is still far from satisfactory. In 2024, the police investigated 6,23,377 cases of crimes against women, including 1,81,717 pending cases from the previous year. Of these, 3,36,609 cases were chargesheeted, with a chargesheeting rate of 77.2 per cent.
However, courts are still bogged down by delays. Currently, 26,40,698 cases of crimes against women are pending trial in India, of which 23,04,089 cases were carried over from the previous year. The conviction rate also remains abysmal, with 1,23,340 cases resulting in acquittals and only 45,832 cases resulting in convictions in 2024. Women in India are not just fighting against violence; they also deal with the exhausting process of delayed justice, social stigma, lack of institutional support, and public judgement.
The NCRB 2024 data leaves no doubt that violence against women in India is not an exception but the norm. And until the country starts to address patriarchy as an entrenched system connected to caste, marriage, religion, institutional failure, and more, and not as an isolated issue, these reports will keep coming every year, while nothing changes on the ground.
About the author(s)
Nidhi Jarwal works with National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR) and writes on caste, gender, political representation, and democracy.
