Crime against women highest in WB

KOLKATA: The way Seema Sai murdered her two children is a chilling pointer to the rising crimes against women and girls in the state, say experts.

The latest report of the National Crime Records Bureau paints a grim picture of the state as far as crimes against women and girls are concerned.

In 2006, West Bengal recorded the highest number of cases of 'procuration of minor girls', which means seducing or forcing a girl into intercourse, under Section 366A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The state has reported 77 such cases — a share of 33.3% at the national level — and is followed by Andhra Pradesh and Kerala. Among the cities Kolkata takes the top slot with 11 cases, comprising 68.8% of the countrywide city break-up of such cases.

Bengal accounts for an alarming 92.7% of the recorded cases of girls being bought or sold for sex trade. OF the 123 cases reported across the country in 2006, 114 were in the state. Kolkata is definitely not an 'oasis of peace' for the girl child. The city recorded six cases of girls sold into the sex trade.

This constituted 66.7% of the national average. No other city in India comes even close to Kolkata.

The figures indicate that Bengal has emerged as the major centre for trafficking. Despite several intervention programmes across the state, trafficking remains the biggest menace not only in the rural Bengal but even in Kolkata.

There was a silver lining in the report though. Bengal accounted for just 7.7% of the total number of crime against children in the country.

Social scientist Pradip Chattopadhyay said, "The strict enforcement of anti-sex determination laws has ensured that there are fewer cases of female foeticide in the state. Even then, giving birth to a girl child is still seen as a matter of shame, for which the mother suffers life-long trauma. Just imagine what goes on in the mind of the girl child when she starts understanding these things. The Belur incident is just an indication of the devastating fallout of such stigma."