Himanta Biswa Sarma: Assam sees 83 per cent decline in rape cases since 2019

Assam Chief Minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Sunday that more than 40,000 rape cases have been reported in his state since 2001 and the incidents have dramatically gone down since 2020.

According to the data available with Sarma, over 3,000 rape cases have been registered every year during the first term of the BJP-led government from 2016 till 2021. Of these, the highest was in 2019 when 3,546 cases were registered, but it has come down drastically since then. The data has recorded 1,657 cases in the year 2020, 1,733 in the year 2021, 1,113 cases in the year 2022, 989 in the year 2023, and 580 cases have been reported until July 2024.

The Congress-led governments from the period of 2001-2016 had the highest crime rate in the year 2014 with a record of 1,980 rape cases. The BJP, under the leadership of Sarma and his predecessor, Sarbananda Sonowal, took power in the year 2016, before forming a government once again in the year 2021.

Sarma underlined the commitment of the state towards addressing this critical issue and laid, "Every single incident of rape has to be condemned in no uncertain terms because it is a huge violation of human dignity. We, as a society, are saddled with the responsibility of wiping out this abominable crime from the face of our motherland".