Parliament Question: Schemes for the Safety of Women

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF WOMEN & CHILD DEVELOPMENT LOK SABHA UN-STARRED QUESTION NO. 1078 TO BE ANSWERED ON 24.07.2026 Schemes for the Safety of Women †1078. Shri Anil Yeshwant Desai: Will the Minister of WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT be pleased to state: (a) whether crime against women have increased significantly in the country, if so, the details thereof; (b) the details of cases of crime against women registered in the country during the last five years, State-wise; (c) the number of sexual harassment at workplace cases reported during the said period along with the status of their disposal; (d) the details of the schemes being run by the Government to ensure the safety of women; (e) the manner in which the Government has evaluated the effectiveness of women's helplines and emergency services; and (f) the details of the steps being taken to increase the safety and awareness of women in urban and rural areas? ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT (SHRIMATI SAVITRI THAKUR) (a) and (b): ‘Police’ and ‘Public Order’ are State subjects under the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution of India. Responsibility to maintain law and order and protection of life and property of the citizens and investigation and prosecution of crime against women rests primarily with the respective State Governments; they are legally competent to deal with such crimes.The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) under Ministry of Home Affairs, compiles and publishes statistical data on crimes in its publication “Crime in India”. The latest published report pertains to the year 2024 and is available at its website https://ncrb.gov.in/en/crime-india. As reported by NCRB, the data of State and UT-wise cases registered under Crime against Women during 2020-2024 is at Annexure–I. Among other reasons, increased reporting of crime is attributable to the increased level of awareness among citizens due to various measures taken by government in the last few years including the operationalisation of helplines such as Women Helpline -181, Child Helpline - 1098 and Emergency Response Support System (ERSS-112), concept of Zero FIR and e-FIR and provision of institutional support to the survivors. (c): The Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) launched the Sexual Harassment Electronic Box (SHe-Box) Portal (https://shebox.wcd.gov.in/), as a digital governance initiative on August 29, 2024, for effective implementation of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 (POSH Act). The POSH Act mandates the Appropriate Government to monitor the implementation of the Act and maintain data on number of cases filed and disposed of under Act. It provides for constitution of Internal Committee (IC) where the number of employees is 10 or more and also mandates for constitution of Local Committee (LC) by the District Officer notified under the Act to deal with the cases of workplaces where the number of employees is less than 10 or when the complaint is against the employer itself. SHe-Box Portal is not a mechanism for statutory or regulatory oversight; it is only an IT aid to provide a centralized online system to facilitate dissemination of information about the ICs and LCs constituted at various workplaces so that any aggrieved woman may file complaint in a secure and hassle-free manner and track its progress. However, as mandated under the POSH Act, the appropriate Governments are responsible for monitoring the implementation of the Act. The Portal provides options for disposal of complaints in accordance with relevant provisions under the POSH Act including Section 12 to 15 and Rules 7 to 10 under POSH Rules. Details of complaints registered and disposed on the SHe- Box Portal since its launch on 29th August, 2024 (as on 21.07.2026) are as below: Workplace/ Sector No. of Complaints received No. of Complaints Disposed Central 223 139 State 157 61 Private 130 8Total 510 208 (d) to (f): Safety of women is of utmost priority for the Government. It has been Government’s endeavour to put in place effective mechanisms to provide a safe environment for women to work and live and fulfil their potential. However, “Police‟ and “Public Order‟ are State subjects under the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India. The responsibility to maintain law and order, protection of life and property of the citizens including investigation and prosecution of crime against women and children rests primarily with the respective State Governments and they are competent to deal with it. Government of India implements various schemes and projects like One Stop Centres (OSCs) for providing support and integrated range of services under one roof to the women affected by violence and those in distress such as Police Facilitation, Medical Aid, Psycho-social Counselling, Legal Aid and Counselling and Temporary Shelters across the country; Women Helpline (WHL) running on toll free telephonic short code 181 to facilitate emergency and non-emergency services and information about Government Schemes and facilities to women; Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP) to raise awareness about gender biased sex selection and about education and issues relating to empowerment of girls and Shakti Sadan for women in difficult circumstances or destitution under umbrella scheme of Mission Shakti. The MWCD provides financial assistance, technical support and facilitates implementation of the Women Helpline (WHL) scheme as per the Mission Shakti Guidelines. The implementation of scheme lies with the respective State Governments/ Union Territory Administrations. Women Helpline-181 functions as a universal, toll-free, 24x7 support mechanism for women in distress as well as for women seeking information regarding Government schemes and services. Women Helpline has been integrated with ERSS-112, Child Helpline, One Stop Centres and other support services to facilitate timely response and coordinated assistance to women in distress. 657 OSCs have been integrated with Women Helpline across the country. The integration enables seamless transfer of calls and case information from the WHL Control Room at the State level to the concerned OSC at the district level, wherever intervention by OSC functionaries is required. The integration process involves technical readiness, onboarding of States and UTs, availability of required infrastructure, user creation, training of functionaries, testing of workflows and coordination with the concerned State and UT authorities. The MWCD has launched the 'Mission Shakti Portal' with all functional features on January 22, 2025. This portal aims to enhance accessibility of various government services for women, establish quality mechanisms for rescue, protection, andrehabilitation, and build the capacity of functionaries and duty holders under various schemes and legislations. Also, the Mission Shakti Mobile App is an initiative by the Ministry to enhance accessibility to support services for women. The app ensures quick, reliable, and inclusive access to essential services for women nationwide. The app offers a user-friendly platform with key features including OSC appointment Booking, Locating nearest Institute with Google Maps integration, AI Chatbot: 24/7 virtual support on MWCD schemes and services, Emergency Helpline (181)- in-app access for immediate assistance, etc. Further, schemes/ projects implemented by Central Government under Nirbhaya Fund includes, Emergency Response Support System (ERSS) which is a pan-India single number (112)/ mobile app based system for emergencies; a cyber-crime reporting portal to report obscene content; Safe City Projects in 8 cities (Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Lucknow and Mumbai) including infrastructure, technology adoption and capacity building in community through awareness programmes, training and skill development programs for Investigation Officers, Prosecution Officers and Medical Officers; distribution of Sexual Assault Evidence Collection (SAEC) Kits to States/ UTs; establishment of State of Art DNA Laboratory at CFSL, Chandigarh; assistance to 24 States and UTs to strengthen Forensic Science Laboratories; setting up/ strengthening of Anti Human Trafficking Units (AHTUs) in all districts of the country; setting up/ strengthening of Women Help Desks (WHDs) at Police Stations etc. Funded through Nirbhaya Fund, Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D) has also undertaken several initiatives, which, inter-alia includes training and skill development programs for Investigation Officers, Prosecution Officers and Medical Officers, distribution of Sexual Assault Evidence Collection (SAEC) Kits to States/ UTs. BPR&D has also prepared Standard Operating Procedures (SoPs) for ‘Women Help Desk at Police Stations’ to ensure smooth functioning of Women Help Desks by focusing on four critical components viz. infrastructure, training, human resource development and response mechanism. The Government, through institutions like the National Commission for Women (NCW), Savitribai Phule National Institute of Women and Child Development (SPNIWCD) and their counterparts in States have been spreading awareness through seminars, workshops, audio- visual, print and electronic media etc. to sensitize the people about the safety and security of women. The National Commission for Women (NCW), in addition to handling complaints through regular mode, assists women in distress through a dedicated 24x7 Helpline -14490 to provide Digital Complaint Registration System for women affected by violence through referral (Linking with appropriate authority such aspolice, One Stop Centre, hospital) and providing information about women related government programmes across the country. To strengthen the mechanism for online safety and to deal with cyber-crimes in a comprehensive and coordinated manner, the Ministry of Home Affairs has set up the ‘Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre’ (I4C) as an attached office to deal with all types of cybercrime in the country, in a coordinated and comprehensive manner. The ‘National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal’ (https://cybercrime.gov.in) has been launched, as a part of the I4C, to enable public to report incidents pertaining to all types of cyber-crimes, with special focus on cyber-crimes against women and children. Cyber-crime incidents reported on this portal, their conversion into FIRs and subsequent action thereon are handled by the Law Enforcement Agencies of State and UT concerned, as per the provision of law. Annexure-I State and UT-wise Cases Registered under Crime against Women during 2020- 2024 SL State and UT 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 1 Andhra Pradesh 17089 17752 25503 22418 19952 2 Arunachal Pradesh 281 366 335 326 321 3 Assam 26352 29046 14148 12070 10546 4 Bihar 15359 17950 20222 22952 27359 5 Chhattisgarh 7385 7344 8693 8035 8601 6 Goa 219 224 273 286 356 7 Gujarat 8028 7348 7731 7805 7606 8 Haryana 13000 16658 16743 15758 13945 9 Himachal Pradesh 1614 1599 1551 1604 1605 10 Jharkhand 7630 8110 7678 6989 6367 11 Karnataka 12680 14468 17813 20336 19945 12 Kerala 10139 13539 15213 16025 15037 13 Madhya Pradesh 25640 30673 32765 32342 32832 14 Maharashtra 31954 39526 45331 47101 47954 15 Manipur 247 302 248 201 195 16 Meghalaya 568 685 690 628 658 17 Mizoram 172 176 147 184 259 18 Nagaland 39 54 49 56 56 19 Odisha 25489 31352 23648 25914 2744920 Punjab 4838 5662 5572 5258 5348 21 Rajasthan 34535 40738 45058 45450 36563 22 Sikkim 140 130 179 134 131 23 Tamil Nadu 6630 8501 9207 8943 11363 24 Telangana 17791 20865 22066 23678 24495 25 Tripura 874 807 752 791 716 26 Uttar Pradesh 49385 56083 65743 66381 66398 27 Uttarakhand 2846 3431 4337 3808 3342 28 West Bengal 36439 35884 34738 34691 34360 TOTAL STATE(S) 357363 409273 426433 430164 423759 29 A&N Islands 143 169 178 205 156 30 Chandigarh 301 343 325 371 452 31 D&N Haveli and Daman & Diu+ 61 99 126 124 86 32 Delhi 10093 14277 14247 13439 13396 33 Jammu & Kashmir* 3405 3937 3716 3653 3366 34 Ladakh 9 18 15 20 34 35 Lakshadweep 15 9 16 23 13 36 Puducherry 113 153 200 212 272 TOTAL UT(S) 14140 19005 18823 18047 17775 TOTAL (ALL INDIA) 371503 428278 445256 448211 441534****