Dimple Yadav's UP Election Claims: 1 Right, 1 Wrong, Another Iffy
Dimple Yadav, Member of Parliament of Samajwadi Party (SP) from Kannauj, Uttar Pradesh (UP) and wife of UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, addressed an election rally on February 26, 2017 in Jaunpur.
We fact-checked three claims made by Yadav during the speech.
Claim 1 (Time 08:02)
"Uttar Pradesh dudh utpadan mein number one hai" (UP is the number 1 milk producer)
Fact: Yadav is right.
India produced 155.4 million tonne milk in 2015-16 of which 26.38 million tonne (17%) was produced by UP, more than any other state, according to data from the National Dairy Development Board.
Claim 2 (Time 10:24)
"Gujarat mein pachas pratishat se bhi zyada bacche kuposhit hai, kamzor hai." (More than 50% of kids in Gujarat are malnourished and weak)
Fact: Yadav is wrong.
In Gujarat, 38.5% of children are stunted (low height-for-age), 26.4% are wasted (low weight-for-height) and 39.3% are underweight, according to data from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 2015-16.
In 2010-11, 44.7% children in Gujarat were underweight, IndiaSpend had reported on December 25, 2012.
Claim 3 (Time 4:48)
"Uttar Pradesh mein mahilaon ke saath apradh mein solah pratishat ki girawat aayi hai" (Crime against women in UP has reduced by 16%)
Fact: Cannot be determined but unlikely.
As many as 35,527 crimes against women were registered in 2015, a decline of 7.6% from 38,467 in 2014, according to data from National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).
Comparing data over four years from 2012--the year SP came to power--to 2015, crimes against women increased 51%.
Source: National Crime Records Bureau
The crime rate--registered crimes per 100,000 females--increased 43% from 24.25 in 2012 to 34.8 in 2015.
The rise in registered crimes since 2012 can be correlated to the change in India's rape-related law--which was tightened, possibly leading to higher reporting--after the 2012 Delhi gangrape of a physiotherapy student, now widely known as Nirbhaya, which led to protests and outrage, IndiaSpend reported in December 2016.
FactChecker attempted to gather the latest crime data from the State Crime Records Bureau (SCRB), UP. Our attempt revealed that the SCRB has yet not received the data from districts to compile and send it to NCRB. Two days ago, it received a notice from the NCRB asking for the data by the end of this month. SCRB officials told FactChecker that would not be possible because of six officers, four were currently on election duty.
A senior SCRB official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there was no question of a decrease in the crime rate against women.
UP often misrepresents and under-reports crime data, IndiaSpend reported on March 13, 2015.
In 2015, there were 27 states and UTs with higher rates of rape than UP, including 15 states with a population more 10 million, FactChecker reported on February 17, 2017.
Promise 1 (Time 11:38)
Ek lakh police ki bharti karni hai (One lakh police personnel are to be hired)
Fact: UP has half as many police as it requires.
UP should have 363,785 police men and women, but no more than 181,827 positions (50%) are filled, according to data from Bureau of Police Research & Development.
(Saha is an MA Gender and Development student at Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex. Additional reporting from Uttar Pradesh by 101Reporters.com, a pan-India network of grassroot journalists.)