The bureau citing the ‘latest’ two-year-old figures available with it, said that in 1996 torture cases were 30.4 per cent whereas figure of molestation cases was 25 per cent of total crimes committed against women in the country.In countries like India though there has been some reporting of such crimes against the weaker sex, there is an upward trend in the incidences of domestic violence i.e. rape, kidnapping and abduction, dowry deaths, torture, molestation, sexual harassment, importation of girls, sati, etc.

There were a total of 1,09,259 cases of crimes against women, informed the bureau. The all-India crime rate for the cases against women per lakh reported to the police was estimated at 12.4. The rate is double, nearly 25.7 per lakh, when only the female population is taken as the base."One must also recognise that a vast percentage of crimes against women go unreported due to social stigma attached to them. Therefore, these statistics represent rates of ‘reported’ crimes against women, while ‘actual’ rates may be much higher", said Ms. Chandni Joshi, United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM)’s regional programme adviser.UNIFEM recently launched a 16-day global campaign for the elimination of gender-based violence in the South Asia region.Crimes against women in 1996 showed an overall increase of 5.9 per cent and 7.5 per cent over 1995 and 1994.More specifically, the incidence of rape cases and dowry death cases during 1996 over 1995 showed an increase of 7.9 per cent and 8.3 per cent, respectively.The number of teasing cases showed an increase of 17.7 per cent.The percentage distribution of various crimes against women during 1996 was torture (30.4 per cent), molestation (25 per cent), kidnapping and abduction (12.9 per cent), rape (12.8 per cent), sexual harassment (4.9 per cent), dowry deaths (4.8 per cent), Dowry Prohibition Act (2.3 per cent), others (7 per cent).State-wise percentage contribution to total crimes committed against women during 1996 was: Maharashtra (14.3 per cent), Madhya Pradesh (12.9 per cent), Uttar Pradesh (11.8 per cent), Rajasthan (9.1 per cent), Andhra Pradesh (8.3 per cent), Tamil Nadu (8 per cent), West Bengal (5.6 per cent), other states and Union territories (30 per cent).

Remote Indian villages are expected to be linked with thousands of satellite telephones under an agreement with the communication cooperative Inmarsaat.An announcement from the Department of Telecommunications on installation of the telephones in the villages is expected next month, Inmarsaat officials said.Inmarsaat is a cooperative firm of 79 countries including India and it offers its communications services to member countries commercially.

About half of India’s 650,000 villages still have no telephone links. Inmarsaat telephones, which have direct satellite links, are being considered in villages that are more than 25 kms from places with normal telephone linkages. It is in low usage areas that such telephones can be cost effective, an official said.Inmarsaat put up 13 experimental telephones in recent months to gauge their performance. The telephones were put up in Siachen, Rajasthan desert, in outposts in the North-East and other places far removed from normal telephone services.Inmarsaat is setting up 87 telephones for the defence forces in Kashmir, the North-East and other border areas, the official said.

Each battery-operated telephone links directly to an Inmarsaat satellite and then to any other conventional telephone number.‘Soldiers posted in Siachen have found the telephone a godsend’, the official claimed.Inmarsaat charges up to $3,000 (Rs. 120,000) per telephone installation and then 35 cents (Rs. 15) per minute for phone calls. But users of the new telephones in remote areas are not expected to be charged such high rates. The cost is expected to be subsidised so that users in these areas pay as much as users elsewhere.The DoT decision next month is expected to cover hundreds of points, but the number of sites has not been specified as yet.Inmarsaat is in competition primarily with the firm Iridium in providing direct satellite telephones. Inmarsaat is offering data transfer services additionally to the voice contact offered by Iridium systems.

Inmarsaat, which is planning to go private from April next year, started off with a communications system for ships, a service in which it is still the leading provider. The marine communications service will be operated along with other commercial contracts that the international cooperative takes up.Inmarsaat has already set up satellite telephone systems on the Rajdhani Express trains.The phones are installed for passenger use, but the communications system is also available to the crew.One consulant said such communication systems on all trains could prevent accidents of the kind that occurred in Punjab recently.Inmarsaat telephones are also being considered for disaster communications all over the country, the official said. "The plan is to have two such telephones in every district, one at the office of the collector and one vehicle-mounted," the official added.The new kind of telephone systems are now being preferred to the older multichannel radio systems that have not been working very well, the Inmarsaat official said.Inmarsaat is also offering small tracking devices that can help locate vehicles for fleet operators. "We have been in touch with several transport companies," the official said.