The Bengal Government formed and led by Mamata Banerjee was elected to office of a majority mandate that was promised a safer and more secure State which would be founded on the pillars of qualitative development and considerable social welfare.
The recent data from 2016 Crime Statistics indicates that Bengal today has bettered significantly in both ensuring better mechanisms of reporting while also creating more robust mechanisms of crime prevention. Kolkata now stands at the 17th position in terms of crimes against women. This rank is much higher than other metro cities like Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Jaipur and Delhi.
Total crimes against women has also seen a downward trend in Bengal: In 2014, the number was 38,424. It came down to 33,318 in 2015 and in 2016 further reduced to 32,513.
Bengal records the least number of rapes of minors. Sensitisation is a social cause and works hand-in-hand with ensuring safety through the legal machinery. It is in light of this crucial realisation that the Kolkata Police has also begun sensitisation workshops with boys in schools in order to make them aware of how to interact with women and make the city more conducive for women.
Bengal Government has built models of social security schemes – like Kanyashree – that are intended to keep women in schools against the odds of their gender, constructive programmes and constant vigilance through tools of the State Government such as the police has helped the current Government in Bengal better the situation of crimes against women from the time it has come to office to now.
December has been etched in the Indian memory as that of collective rage against a brutal rape that occurred in the National Capital of India. While the inhumanity of that crime shook us, we all acknowledged that women are unsafe and sexually victimised each day– in homes and streets and schools and workplaces, and it is only with the collective commitment and will of every member of the citizenship as well as the governing that any conspicuous change can be affected.
Bengal, through exemplary work in fields of education and law and order has begun this daunting journey and results are very prominent.