In an objectionable statement just a day after International Women’s Day, Rajasthan cabinet minister Shanti Dhariwal on Wednesday associated high number of rape cases in Rajasthan with the state “being a men’s state.”
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Giving reply to a debate in the Assembly for grants to police and jails departments, Dhariwal, who is also the cabinet minister for Law and Legal Affairs, said, “We are number one in rape, ismein koi do raai nahin (no doubt about that), ab ye rape ke mamle mein kyun hain, kahin na kahin galti hai ye toh s**** (now why we are number one, it is a fault somewhere).”
As some MLAs sitting behind him spoke, he turned to them and said, “Rajasthan toh mardon ka pradesh raha hai yaar, ab uska kya karein (Rajasthan has been a state of men, what to do about that),” prompting some ministers and MLAs to burst into laughter.
“Uttar Pradesh is number 2, Madhya Pradesh is number 3, Maharashtra is number 4, Assam is number 5 and Haryana is number 6,” Dhariwal said.
However, no one objected to his comments in the Assembly; the Opposition had boycotted Dhariwal’s reply before these comments were made. They had staged a walkout after Dhariwal had alleged that women are most unsafe in Varanasi, the Lok Sabha constituency of PM Narendra Modi. Reacting sharply to his statement, the BJP MLAs created uproar in the House and had staged a walkout.
Later in the day, BJP state president Satish Poonia said that Dhariwal’s “shameless confession of the state being number one in rapes is not only an insult to women but has also brought down the dignity of men. If Congress has any morality left, then such a minister should be shown the way out.”
As per National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data for 2020 — which was released in September, 2021 — when it comes to IPC section 376 (rape), Rajasthan tops the list with an incidence (FIRs registered) of 5,310 and 5,337 victims. In absolute numbers, Uttar Pradesh is a distant second with an incidence of 2,769 and 2,796 victims.
Overall, Rajasthan stood fifth in crime against women, an improvement from its third position in 2019. For crimes against women, the state has a crime rate of 90.5 per lakh population; it is calculated by adding crimes registered under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Special and Local Laws (SLL). The list is topped by Assam with 154.3; however, it is one of the smaller states. It is followed by Odisha (112.9), Telangana (95.4) and Haryana (94.7). The national average is 56.5.
And when it comes to absolute numbers for crimes against women, Rajasthan (34,535) is next only to Uttar Pradesh (49,385) and West Bengal (36,439).
However, Rajasthan officials say that post 2018, not just rape but overall crime figures have shot up in the state due to strict measures and various initiatives by the Ashok Gehlot government, which came to power in December 2018. The chief among them is strengthening the framework around mandatory registration of FIR in 2019.