Maneka Gandhi Wrong On Rape Claim: India Ranks In Top 4, Not Bottom 4
Women and child development minister Maneka Gandhi claimed recently that India "ranked among the lowest four countries in the world" in terms of rapes.
"India ranked among the lowest four countries in the world in terms of rape cases and Sweden was at the top," Gandhi told a person in a 'position of authority' in Sweden--she made a trip to that country after the 2012 gang-rape of a physiotherapy student--the Times of India reported on November 22, 2016.
India reported 36,735 rapes in 2014, according to data from the National Crime Records Bureau.
India is not among the bottom four, as Gandhi claimed, but among the top four countries in terms of rape cases, based on 2014 data from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
Source: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime; National Crime Records Bureau
In 2013 and 2014, Sweden was 10th and seventh, nowhere near the top, as Gandhi claimed.
In 2013, Brazil took the second position with 49,929 rapes reported, ahead of India with 33,707 cases. The USA reported the most rapes, 113,695.
Another way of reporting rapes is cases per 100,000 population, but even with this yardstick, India is not among the bottom four, as Gandhi claimed.
Source: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime; National Crime Records Bureau
Twenty nine other countries, such as Japan (1.1), Greece (1.3), Hong Kong (1.5) and Singapore (2.2), reported a lower rate of rape than India.
Four years after the December 16, 2012 gang-rape of a physiotherapy student that India knows as Nirbhaya, the administrative overhaul promised is fading, IndiaSpend reported in August 2016.
As many as 2.24 million crimes against women were reported over the past decade: 26 crimes against women are reported every hour, or one complaint every two minutes, IndiaSpend reported in September 2015.
Around 35% women globally have experienced either physical or sexual violence from partners or sexual violence from non-partners, according to a 2013 global review by UN Women.
Some national studies show that up to 70% of women have experienced physical and/or sexual violence from an intimate partner, the UN Women report said.
