New Delhi: A committee on empowerment of women on Monday rapped the government for failing to formulate a concrete action plan to prevent the "astronomical" increase in incidents of sexual abuse and creating a safe environment for women.
The committee, in its report submitted in parliament today, stated, "A special co-ordination or a monitoring mechanism should be put in place keeping in view the astronomical increase in crimes against women in all states and union territories.
"Considering the fact that there would not be any noticeable impact in issuing advisories to the states and UTs, the committee strongly recommend that specific modalities should be worked out and implemented by the government," the report said.
The committee had observed that a total 2,28,650 incidents of crime against women were reported in the country during 2011 as compared to the 2,13,585 cases in 2010, recording 7.1 per cent increase.
In 2007, a total of 1,85, 312 cases of crime against women were recorded while 1,95,856 cases were recorded in 2008 and 2,03,804 cases in 2009 which shows an increasing trend.
"The Committee is astonished to find that on the one hand, incidents of sexual abuse, in varous forms are increasing at a lightening speed throughout the country, on the other hand, no concrete action plan have been formulated and implemented by the Union government.
"The Committee feels that if the current state of affairs are not handled properly by all stakeholders, the rate of increase of victims of sexual abuse would be higher than the growth of population rate in the country by 2013," the committee had observed.
