Incest isn't rare anymore in country, report finds

One would not expect a father to rape his daughter or a son to sexually assault his mother, but the latest government figures show that scores of such offenders across the country were caught last year.

Whether it is a grandfather, father, brother or son, according to the ‘Crime in India 2015’ report, there were 488 people who were accused of sexual assault.

These numbers are just 1.4% of the 34,651 cases but their shock value is huge.
“This number could be higher as many such cases may not be reported. These incidents do happen within the family,” Dr Rajat Mitra, a clinical psychologist who runs Swanchetan Society for Mental Health, told DH here.

In this category, Rajasthan and Delhi had the highest number of 98 and 80 cases, respectively, where blood relatives were behind the offence. Kerala, which boasts of 100% literacy, is third on the list of ignominy, closely followed by Maharashtra with 69 such cases.

Telangana, which reported 1,105 rapes, and Bihar with 1,041 cases did not have such an incident throughout 2015, according to the report prepared by the National Crime Records Bureau and released on Tuesday.

The latest figures in the report showed that the victims in 95.5% of rape cases knew the offender. According to the statistics, offenders in 891 cases were close relatives other than grandfather, father, son or brother. Other relatives accounted for 1,788 cases.

Neighbours accounted for 9,508 cases, while in 557 cases, live-in partners or former husbands were the offenders. In 7,655 cases, the victims were raped with the false promise of marriage.

The figures showed that in 1,553 cases, the offenders were not known to the victim, while in 33,098 cases, they knew the attackers.

However, Dr Mitra finds the linking of victims with known and unknown persons faulty.
“Even if the victim had spoken to the offender once, or she has seen him once, the accused is considered as a known person. It is relative. The exact degree of familiarity is not known. All these are vague. Society tries this definition in order to minimise the gravity,” he said adding it was an alibi used by the police to say they could not control such cases.

Also, he said, several cases of sexual assault by strangers were not reported and the statistics may not be exact.