Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have both given the highest marks to UP for tackling crime, but incidents and statistics keep coming into the open that belie those claims. Modi said some time ago that the state was now totally safe for women and girls; Yogi said last week that UP had become an example for the country and even the world for law and order. Among crimes directed against vulnerable groups, those against women and Dalits are the most serious. As per the National Crime Records Bureau, women in UP faced the maximum crimes in the country in 2021. National Commission for Women records show that it had received the highest number of complaints of crimes against women in 2021 from UP. The state recorded a 7.4 per cent increase in crimes against Dalits, the second highest after Madhya Pradesh. While recorded cases of rape of Dalit women declined by 6.2 per cent across India, they rose by 3.4 per cent between 2019 and 2020 in UP. Compared to 2017, the increase was of the order of 13.6 per cent.
Serious cases of atrocities that are regularly reported from the state support these figures. Two cases were reported in the last one week. Two Dalit sisters aged 15 and 17 years were gang-raped, murdered and hung from a tree in Lakhimpur Kheri a week ago. Another Dalit minor girl was gang-raped and set ablaze in Pilibhit district. The assault happened two weeks ago but the girl died this week. These horrible incidents have happened even as the Hathras gang-rape and murder of a 20-year-old Dalit woman two years ago is still fresh in the nation’s mind. In the Lakhimpur Kheri case, the accused were quickly arrested, allegedly because they were Muslims. While the family of the victim has said that they did not trust the police version of the incident, there is an insidious attempt to give a “love jihad” twist to the case.
Victims, their families and supporters have complained that registration of cases is not always easy and there is no assurance of fair investigation. Activists have alleged that there is gross under-reporting of gender crimes, especially those against Dalit women. As per data provided by Union Law Minister Kiran Rijiju, UP accounts for more than 70 per cent of the 13.81 lakh pending trials in fast-track courts in cases of heinous crimes against women, children and senior citizens. Instead of maligning those who criticise the state’s crime situation and making false claims about it, the Yogi government should take steps to bring crime under control.