Crime against elderly on the rise

Efforts like elderly day to make the country more empathetic towards senior citizens seem to have a lacklustre impact. National Crime Record Bureau’s (NCRB) data recorded a steep rise in crime against elderly in 2015 with Uttar Pradesh leading the trend. Senior citizens in the state were victims of murders, culpable homicide and even rape.

According to NCRB, 151 murders were recorded in UP, making it rank third among all other states, just behind Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu with 167 and 162 murders, respectively in the two states. Around 29 culpable homicides cases were registered in UP, making it the state with the most number of such cases in the country. A total of 58 incidents of rape against senior citizens were reported in the country of which UP ranked third along with Telangana and Tripura with 4 cases in each state. Maharashtra had the maximum number of rape cases at 9 followed by Kerala and Chattisgarh with 5 each. Three cases of dacoity and 18 cases of robbery were also reported in UP.

A total of 440 men and 9 women were arrested for murder of senior citizens in UP, making it the state with the highest number of arrests. A total of 1798 arrests were made for the crime in the country. The state also recorded 24 arrests for dacoity and 4 arrests for rape. A total of 20532 crimes against senior citizens were recorded in the country in 2015. Out of this, maximum cases were reported in Maharashtra followed by Madhya Pradesh. In UP a total of 370 such cases were recorded.

“Crime is on the rise against oldies as there is no fear of God among the people. There are no pre or post marriage councillors to make the masses understand the importance of relationships. The laws for the fairer sex have many loop holes, hence it is resulting into harassment of old people,” said Dr Indu Subhash, a social scientist, PhD in women studies and founder of Guide Samaj Kalyan Sansthan—the agency working for the fight against elderly abuse.