Majority of the crimes against women take place within the confines of home and only 3.5 per cent of such offences are committed by strangers, leaving very less opportunity for the law enforcement agencies to avert it, Delhi Police has said.
In response to a letter of the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW), Senior Special Commissioner (Law & Order) Deepak Mishra said, "Proximity of the affluent and the under-privileged urban anonymity encouraging deviant behaviour, loosening of social structures and family control and adverse sex ratio, all have significant role as criminogenic factors."
"Delhi is now the second most populous metropolis in the world (recent report of United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs) and having a large floating population of almost 20 lakhs per day with huge socio-economic disparities," Mishra said.
However, countering this view, DCW chief Swati Maliwal said, "I feel that this may not be the best approach by Delhi Police and needs to be revisited. This is because even if the crime is occurring at home or workplace and is carried out by a person known to the victim, police has as significant a role to play as in any other crime."
"The role of police becomes paramount in promptly registering a case, conducting effective investigation and filing a charge sheet in a proper and timely manner, thereby adding conviction in Delhi following which crimes inside and outside homes will automatically come down," Maliwal wrote in her second letter to Mishra.
DCW is planning to conduct a study to assess the outcomes of the initiatives of Delhi Police in creating a safer environment for women in Delhi and suggest improvements on the same.
"One of the outcomes of the study would also be to suggest ways and formats for digitising police records and develop a mechanism for digital tracking of cases and their status," Maliwal said.
On August 1, the DCW chief had written to Delhi Police Commissioner B S Bassi, seeking information about the number of complaints of crime against women including that of rape and molestation in the city.
