Overall homicide rate declines in India, increases 'noticeably' in some northern states: UN report

The overall homicide rate in India has decreased by 10 percent over a period of six years till 2015 but the trend increased "noticeably" in some northern states, according to a UN report. The Global Study on Homicide 2019 published Monday by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said that about 464,000 people across the world were killed in homicides in 2017, an increase from 395,542 in 1992.

In India, the number of homicide victims fell from 48,167 in 2000 to 46,460 in 2010, 44,373 in 2015 and 42,678 in 2016. Males constitute less than 20 percent of the total homicide victims in 2016 in India, it said. "In India, the overall homicide rate decreased by 10 percent over the period 2009–2015, from 3.8 to 3.4 per 100,000 population. At the same time, the spatial variation in the homicide rate shifted noticeably, with some states in the north registering an increase in the homicide rate, while some large states in the south (e.g. Andhra Pradesh) experienced a decrease," the report said.

It noted that while some smaller cities can have very high homicide rates, larger cities tend to have homicide rates that are more closely in line with national homicide rates. There are several large metropolises, particularly in Asia, with populations above 10 million that have homicide rates below 1 per 100,000 population - rates that are even lower than the national average (e.g. Tokyo: 0.3; Jakarta: 0,3; Seoul: 0,67; Mumbai (India): 0.9).

Asia, which contains 60 percent of the global population, recorded the lowest rate of homicide in the world in 2017 while the Americas region had the highest homicide rate, according to the report. However, because the global population has risen faster than the increase in recorded homicide victims, the overall risk of being killed in homicides has declined steadily. The global homicide rate, measured as the victims of homicide per 100,000 people, declined from 7.2 in 1992, to 6.1 in 2017, the report said.

In 2016, the female homicide rate in India stood at 2.8 percent. Percentage of women and girls in India aged 15–49 who experienced physical violence (irrespective of the perpetrator) in the past 12 months was 18.9 while 33.5 percent women experienced physical violence at least once in their lifetime, it said. The report noted that dowry-related killings of women – which occur when brides are killed or are driven to commit suicide after being subjected to continuous harassment and abuse by the groom's family in an effort to extort dowry payment or increased dowry involving cash or goods – are widely reported in South Asian countries.

"Dowry deaths constitute a unique category of deaths in the Indian Penal Code, which has been amended in recent decades to deal specifically with dowry-related violence," the report said. It added that available data on dowry-related killings from the National Crime Records Bureau indicate those female dowry deaths account for 40 to 50 percent of all female homicides recorded annually in India, representing a stable trend over the period from 1999 to 2016.

"Despite legislation adopted by the Indian Government in 1961 that prohibits the payment of dowry, the practice continues throughout the country and dowry deaths continue to account for a substantial share of all female homicides," it said. Sorcery accusations are also one of the drivers behind gender-related killings in the country.

Data from India on homicide resulting from sorcery accusations show that, albeit in small proportions, this phenomenon still exists, the report noted. "Although the data are not disaggregated by sex, it is likely that women account for a large share of the victims," it said.

The report also found that son preference, which "continues to be deeply embedded in Indian society, can make parents more likely to neglect their female infants and children, "and even to commit infanticide". Further in South Asia, at least one in five ever-married girls experienced partner violence, with particularly high rates in Bangladesh (47 percent) and India (34 percent).