Crime in India has increased by 1.3% in 2018 compared to 2017 with the registration of over 50 lakh cognisable crimes.
But crime rate per lakh population was down to 383.5 in 2018 from 388.6 in 2017.
In short, Crime rate has declined in India since 2016 but Actual number of crimes and crime against women up.
A cognizable offence or case is defined as the one which an officer in-charge of a police station may investigate without the order of a magistrate and effect arrest without warrant.
The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) under the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, is responsible for collecting and analysing crime data as defined by the Indian Penal Code and special and local laws in the country.
Suicides
Overall, a total of 1,34,516 suicides were reported in the country in 2018, showing an increase of 3.6 per cent in comparison to 2017.
The daily wage workers, those earning less than Rs 1 lakh per annum but educated up to the secondary level have the highest share in number of suicides in India in 2018.
Majority of suicides were reported in Maharashtra (17,972) followed by Tamil Nadu (13,896), West Bengal (13,255), Madhya Pradesh (11,775) and Karnataka (11,561).
Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state with 16.9 per cent share of the country's population, has reported comparatively lower percentage share of suicidal deaths, accounting for only 3.6 per cent of the total suicides in the country in 2018.
Delhi, which is the most-populous UT, has reported the highest number of suicides (2,526) among UTs, followed by Puducherry (500).
Unemployment Suicides
According to the NCRB data on accidental deaths and suicides, a total of 12,936 unemployed persons committed suicide in 2018.
It accounts for 9.6 per cent of the total suicides i.e., 1,34,516 suicides.
They were aged below 18 years to above 60 years.
The number has surpassed the number of farmers who committed suicide in the same year.
The NRCB data has revealed that one unemployed person committed suicide every hour during 2018.
The highest number of suicides - 12.3 per cent - committed by unemployed persons were in Kerala, 12.2 per cent in Tamil Nadu, 9.7 per cent in Maharashtra, 8.5 per cent in Karnataka and 7 per cent in Uttar Pradesh.
Farmer Suicides
Suicides of persons engaged in the farming sector have come down for the third consecutive year.
5,763 farmers/cultivators and 4,586 agricultural labourers committed suicide in 2018.
The suicide rate in the deeply stressed agrarian sector accounted for 7.7% of the total 134,516 suicides.
Maharashtra accounted for the highest share in farm-related suicides at 34.7%, followed by Karnataka at 23.2%, Telangana 8.8%, Andhra Pradesh 6.4% and Madhya Pradesh at 6.3%.
Maharashtra and Karnataka alone account for more than half of total suicides in the farming sector in the country.
West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, Uttarakhand, Meghalaya, Goa and Union territories, including Delhi, reported zero suicides by farmers/cultivators and agricultural labourers.