Kolkata ‘safest city’, NCRB says yet again!
In terms of crime rate, Kolkata is the safest city. The cumulative number of crimes too has been on a steady decline.
It is a proud moment for all Kolkatans! The City of Joy has been marked as the safest city in India by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), yet again, in its latest report on the national crime scene, ‘Crimes in India 2020’.
According to the report, the number of crimes in Kolkata per lakh population in 2020 was 129.5. All the bigger cities were way above: The rate was 1,608.6 in New Delhi, 1,937.1 in Chennai, 1,300 in Ahmedabad, 1,300 in Surat and 318.6 in Mumbai.
Considering crimes under the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the crime rate (number of crimes per lakh of population) in Kolkata in 2020 was 109.9. This is much less compared to the others. New Delhi has a crime rate of 1,506.9, Chennai 1,016.4, Mumbai 272.4, Lucknow 500.3, Surat 737.7 and Ahmedabad 966.5.
The total number of crimes in Kolkata too has been on a steady decline for the last few years. While it was 19,062 in 2018, the number reduced to 17,324 in 2019. In 2020, it dropped still furthers to 15,517.
Kidnappings, theft and robbery are very less in Kolkata as compared to other cities.
The NCRB released its crime data for 2020 on Tuesday. The report lists 66,01,285 cognisable crimes, comprising 42,54,356 Indian Penal Code (IPC) violations and 23,46,929 crimes under special and local laws (SLLs). It shows an increase in the registration of cases, compared to 2019, by 14,45,127, or by 28 per cent. In 2019, a total of 51,56,158 cases were registered.
The average crime rate (number of cases registered per one lakh population) has also increased from 385.5 in 2019 to 487.8 in 2020.
The number of atrocities against women is also very low in Kolkata. Nine people were killed in Kolkata last year as a result of dowry-related atrocities. The comparable number is 111 in Delhi, 48 in Lucknow and 30 in Kanpur.
In 2020, 304 people were molested in the city, the figure for which was 1,805 in Delhi and 1,509 in Mumbai.
Eleven rapes were registered in Kolkata in 2020, according to the NCRB report. In Delhi, it was 967, in Jaipur 409, in Mumbai 322 and in Bengaluru 106.
