Rameez Makhdoomi
In the general paradigm of world, women were always pictured as excellent and harmless, but not anymore. With every passing moment, unfortunately, a growing number of female are getting involved in crimes, which ultimately lands them behind bars. Even in a conservative country like India we are witnessing an upward trend in crimes committed by females.
As was once famously remarked, Females may be the fairer sex, but some are also criminals with long rap sheets and a history of brutality.
Pertinently, Maharashtra is one state where many such cases have been recorded since the last 2-3 years as compared to other Indian states. According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) statistics, 90,884 women were arrested in Maharashtra for offences under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) during the three-year period, reports V Narayan for TOI.
The arrests made in Maharashtra was 58 percent more than the 57,406 arrests in Andhra Pradesh and 84 percent more than the 49,333 arrests in Madhya Pradesh. Tamil Nadu, with a tally of 49,066, scored fourth and Gujarat, with 41,872, came fifth.
As per the NCRB data, more women are committing serious crimes like murder and kidnapping. So, the number of women arrests has risen from 30,118 in 2010 to 30,159 in 2011 and to 30,607 the following year. Further, the state Criminal Investigation Department says, around 20,000 women were arrested for the offence of ‘cruelty towards husband and relatives.’ Arrests for rioting (16,843), hurt (15,348) and theft (3,911) are other cases. More than 1,900 women were arrested for murder and nearly 1,700 for attempt to murder.
Himanshu Roy, Joint commissioner of police (crime) said, “Women commit crime for many social, emotional and economic reasons,” reports TOI.
As a matter of fact, Female criminals are least likely to admit to their crimes. While about to be executed, women will usually express love for their criminal partners. One cannot view this tendency of growing number of female criminals in isolation. As the violence and crimes committed against women have grown so have the violent tendencies in women grown.
“Thefts and crimes of passion stemming from betrayal are common. Violence against women has increased and so retaliation is common. Maharashtra is a failing state and all crimes have increased in this chaos. Social disorder is a perfect breeding ground for crime,” added psychiatrist Dr Harish Shetty.
In Maharashtra, out of the 45 commissionerates and district police units, Mumbai reported the maximum number of female arrests at 7,264, which is followed by Jalgaon (5,384), Nasik Rural (5,235), Ahmednagar (4,986) and Pune (4,052).
Even in a developed country like United Kingdom, with figures released earlier this year showing crimes by young girls have risen by more than a fifth in the last four years.
We can safely conclude by statistics and realities that criminals are not just men. There have been an abundance of female criminals in the past that have been known for some pretty heinous crimes at times.
One hopes we build a better world wherein crimes against women and crimes committed by women disappear and a humane society comes into existence.