Assam CM Himanta Biswa orders officials to show zero tolerance towards crime against women

The chief minister of Assam, Himanta Biswa Sarma announced zero tolerance towards any crime or assault taking place against women in the state. He aims to put an end to rape and incidents of domestic violence taking place against women in Assam. The officer in-charge(OC) of all police stations were asked to take immediate actions against any criminal trying to commit assault or crime in the state as per the directions of Assam CM. A special conference on Redefining Policies Standards in Assam was conducted along with all the OCs of police stations to advance the message of ensuring women's preservation.

Advancing crime and women assault in Assam

The toll of crime and women assault is observed more in India especially in rural areas when compared to urban cities. Assam being one of the least populated states in India has been witnessing a sharp upsurge in such cases. The crime rate in Assam has increased from 1,07,014 in 2019 to 1,20,572 in 2021. According to the report, over 177 women in every one lakh female population in Assam were victims of different crimes in 2019 and the majority of them were targets of cruelty by their husbands or relatives. Domestic violence cases have been soaring as well since the covid-19 pandemic. Assam's rate of crimes against women is higher than the Indian average--in 2019, Assam's crime rate (per 100,000 female population) was nearly thrice the Indian average. 

In the four years between 2015-16 and 2019-20, the proportion of wives who reported violence by husbands increased from 24.5% to 32% in Assam. The number of women aged between 18 and 29 years who reported sexual violence increased to 8%, up from 5.8%. More rural women in Assam reported spousal violence (32.9%) than urban women (26.6%), and marginally more rural women (8.1%) reported sexual violence than urban (7.4%). Following the increasing crime rates in Assam, Himanta Biswa immediately respond to the daunting situation of women in the state and orders OCs of all police stations to show zero tolerance towards crime against women.

Assam's swift move towards women safety

The chief minister orders the officers in charge of all the police stations to speed up the trial process by quickly filing the charge sheets of all the cases related to rapes, molestation, assault including fresh murder, human trafficking and drug smuggling cases in the state. He directed the OCs to collect all the data and information related to postmortem reports and immediately send samples to the forensic lab for further testing and analysis. Assam CM also informed everyone that the conference for implementing stringent laws will be held every six months addressing all the OCs from police departments to ensure zero crime rate and violence with women in the state.

Officers from Crime Investigation Department (CID) will be assisting the OCs while working on the charge sheets, said Himanta Biswa. The state will not only focus on curbing the crime rate but will also look after the sanity of OCs of all police departments. Rs. 2.5 lakh will be provided to all the police stations in Assam as a contingency apart from their allocation. He advised the OCs to check upon their mental and physical well being as well. Health check-up days, 3 monitors, a vehicle and a power generator in the police stations are the facilities that will be provided to them, added Assam CM.