CHANDIGARH: The number of rape cases registered in Punjab is only the tip of a very large iceberg, for every ‘one rape case registered last year, nearly 70 went unregistered. Likewise, for every reported case of molestation, nearly 375 were not registered with the police.

The cases not registered with the police were reported by the victims to panchayats, municipalities, mahila mandals and voluntary agencies. All this information was collected by the Institute of Development and Communication Studies here for a detailed study on atrocities against women in Punjab, particularly “those outside the jurisdiction of reported crimes.”

The study was sponsored and financed by the department of social welfare of the state government. It was conducted by institute director Pramod Kumar along with Rainuka Dagar,

A comparison between the reported and “unreported” cases of atrocities against women in 1994 alone showed that against 83 reported rapes, 678 were unreported. Thus, for each reported rape, 68 unreported rape cases occurred in Punjab. Likewise, 11,198 unreported cases of molestation were found against 30 registered molestation cases.

For every reported case of dowry harassment, 299 harassment cases remained unreported, The maximum instances of unreported rape, moles lation and wife beating took place in the rural areas while cases of dowry death, dowry harassment and eve teasing took place in the urban areas, Besides, rape cases were maximum when militancy was at its peak in the Slate, ‘The study also revealed that a woman was raped every 89 minutes, eight women became victims of dowry death every day, a severe wife beating incident took place every 12.5 minutes, 31 women were molested every day, a dowry harassment case took place every half hour, and an eve teasing incident every 19 minutes.

Although in the past three decades, the number of reported cases of atrocities against women showed a marked rise, the study found that it belied the actual situation in the state, Only two cases of dowry deaths were reported in 1966 while last year, the number ‘was 100..The first case of dowry harassment was registered only in 1971 whereas last ycar59 cases were registered. ‘The number of reported rape cases increased from 16 in 1966 to 83 last year while only 30 cases of molestation were registered in 1994.

Article extracted from this publication >> June 23, 1995