The move comes against the backdrop of an around three-percent increase in crimes against women and a 12-percent rise in incidents of rape in 2016 as compared to 2015. (Photo: File/Representational)

New Delhi: The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) is in the process of creating a national registry of crimes against women, its chief Ish Kumar said today, amid growing concern over incidents of sexual assaults.

The move comes against the backdrop of an around three-percent increase in crimes against women and a 12-percent rise in incidents of rape in 2016 as compared to 2015.  “The NCRB is in the process of creating a national registry of crimes against women. The records are being sourced from the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems, and an agency is being hired to prepare the database,” Mr Kumar said at a seminar organised by the Bureau of Police Research and Development here.

The NCRB functions under the administrative control of the ministry of home affairs. In 2015, as many as 34,651 cases of rape were registered. The number increased to 38,947 in 2016. Overall crimes against women rose from 3,29,243 in 2015 to 3,38,954 in 2016, according to the NCRB data.

A majority of cases categorised as crimes against women were reported under “cruelty by husband or his relatives” (32.6 per cent), followed by “assault on woman with intent to outrage her modesty” (25 per cent), “kidnapping and abduction of women” (19 per cent) and “rape” (11.5 per cent).

The highest number of rapes have been reported from Madhya Pradesh (4,882), followed by Uttar Pradesh (4,816) and Maharashtra (4,189) in 2016, according to the NCRB data.