DURG-BHILAINAGAR: Delhi, it seems, is not really the rape capital of India. Chhattisgarh's Durg-Bhilainagar, an urban agglomeration with a population of almost 10 lakh is being billed as the region with the highest incidence of rapes recorded in the country. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, the area recorded 5.7 rapes per 100,000 people last year while 2.8 rapes were registered in Delhi. The rate for Bangalore was 1.1; for Kolkata 0.3, and for Mumbai 1.2.
Is Durg-Bhilainagar - twin cities associated with the largest steel plant in the country -- then really the most unsafe place in the country for women? Residents vehemently deny it saying that their area has been given this label merely on the basis of "number-juggling." Priya Rao, assistant professor at Pandit Ravishankar Shukla University here, says that there are many ways of looking at figures and interpreting them."This does not necessarily mean that the situation on the ground is bad."
Many women that TOI spoke to in the area seem to share this view. "Bhilai has over the years emerged as a major education and sports hub from where a large number of girls are excelling in competitive examinations and various sports. Is it possible to achieve this in a small city where girls feel unsafe to move out of their homes? ", asks Bhilai mayor Nirmala Yadav.
Many believe that a simple mathematical calculation of rate of incidence of crime per lakh population has earned Durg-Bhilainagar this dubious distinction. The rate of incidence of rape is obtained by a calculation of dividing the number of reported cases of rape by the population of the city and multiplying the figure by 100,000. Thus the sum obtained is not a percentage but a figure per 100,000. In that respect, a total of 68 rape cases were reported from the area which would have sent up the ratio of rapes in the region with respect to its 10 lakh population.
Sonal V Mishra, Chhattisgarh' deputy inspector general of police, claims that even the cases registered as rape were not really so . "Most of the 'rape' cases reported during 2011 in Durg-Bhilainagar were registered following elopement of girls of less than 18 years of age and on complaints of sex based on false promise of marriage," she says adding that the police has been prompt in registering complaints and that the perception was "totally unjustified."
Durg-Bhilainagar, not Delhi, the rape capital of the country
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Durg-Bhilainagar, not Delhi, the rape capital of the country
