More women approaching NCW with complaints, Uttar Pradesh tops list

Of the cases, complaints under right to live with dignity, domestic violence and dowry harassment together accounted for 2,975 or 67% of the total cases

More and more women are approaching the National Commission for Women (NCW), with latest data showing a 50.86% rise in the number of complaints submitted in the first two months of 2021 compared to the same period last year.

A total of 4,354 complaints have been filed with the NCW compared to 2,886 submitted in January and February during these two years. On Monday, 49 new complaints have been filed taking the total number of complaints this year to 4,403 cases.

Of the 4,403 complaints, Uttar Pradesh tops the list with 2,285 cases or 51.89% of the total cases this year so far followed by Delhi (446), Maharashtra (235) and Haryana (225). Karnataka has 77 complaints -- 37 in January, 39 in February and one on March 1.

Activists and officials point out that there is more reporting of cases with the NCW starting a WhatsApp number for filing complaints during the Covid-19 lockdown.

Of the cases, complaints under the right to live with dignity, domestic violence and dowry harassment together accounted for 2,975 or 67% of the total cases.

There were 1,196 complaints under Right to live with dignity so far as against 810 in January-February 2020. Last year, there were a total of 7,708 such complaints, the highest among 24 categories identified by the NCW, up from 4,694 in 2019 -- a 64% rise.

Uttar Pradesh accounted for 679 complaints under the right to live with dignity while Delhi has 86, Maharashtra (71), Haryana (45) and Karnataka (38).

When it comes to domestic violence, the number of complaints was 1,050 as against 573 in January-February 2020. In the whole of 2020, 5,294 complaints of domestic violence were registered compared to 2,960 in 2019, which was a whopping 79% rise.

Uttar Pradesh had 345 complaints of domestic violence while Delhi had 222, Maharashtra (83), Haryana (79) and Karnataka (15).

On harassment of married women, including dowry harassment, NCW statistics showed that there were 729 such complaints this year as against 488 in the first two months of 2020. The NCW had last year received a total of 3,784 complaints.

Uttar Pradesh accounted for 508 complaints of dowry harassment while Delhi has 31, Maharashtra (24), Haryana (26) and Karnataka (5).