Lagging in many parameters, Bengal has been consistently featuring on a list of shame, among the top four states with the maximum reported crimes against women.
Many feel the safety of women, who constitute around 48 per cent of the state’s population, could be a key factor in deciding this election.
Calcutta may be doing slightly better than Bengal.
According to the last updated records of the National Crime Records Bureau in 2023, Calcutta has the highest rate of conviction in crimes against women among the four metros. The average rate of conviction across Bengal is among the lowest in the country.
The Telegraph spoke to women — young and old, professionals and homemakers — on how they feel when they step out of their homes.
Here is what we found
Sexual harassment
- A doctor is raped and murdered in a government hospital where she was working on a night shift.
- A law student is gangraped in her college.
- A woman is raped at a friend’s birthday party.
The number of rapes reported in Calcutta is among the lowest in the country, but some of the incidents reported have been so heinous and gruesome that they left the nation in shock.
The brutality made women in the city ponder whether they were safe. Some crimes change the entire perception of how you look at a situation.
“Official records tell one story, but the scene changes if we get into the details. It is unacceptable that a doctor is raped and murdered at her workplace or a young student is raped in her college where her parents sent her to study,” said a social worker who has been working with victims of sexual abuse.
According to national statistics, Bengal was fourth in terms of reported crimes against women between 2021 and 2023, after states like Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan.
The national statistics for rape show that the average number of reported cases across Bengal has been between 1,110 in 2023 and 1,123 in 2021, which is less compared to other large states.
Calcutta, however, had only 10 reported cases of rape in 2023 — the lowest among the cities.
Many feel the numbers do not tell the whole story. Many many more crimes go unreported, they say.
“There are so many more cases where the women develop cold feet and refrain from lodging a formal case, fearing social stigma and the harassment of going to courts. Such cases have no reflection in the official records,” a senior Bengal police officer said on condition of anonymity.
Bike gangs
Young, helmetless bikers, speeding dangerously; bikes without silencers; groups of reckless bikers.
This is how many women describe the “bike gangs” that take the law-enforcers for a ride with little fear of prosecution.
Many feel “insecure” when these men are around. The bikers are especially crude when they spot a woman at the wheel.
Writer Aditi Basu Roy shared how the bike bahini on the roads petrifies her, especially when she is travelling with her eight-year-old daughter.
“Once we were returning to our Baguiati home from Gariahat when a few men on bikes surrounded our car and started to peep in. Our driver was intelligent enough and managed to speed away, but the men continued to follow us till they were stopped by Bidhannagar police at the Calcutta-Salt Lake junction,” she said.
On another occasion, she said, she saw a “girl chased by a biker who finally snatched her dupatta”.
The menace of biking gangs is rampant across the city.
Bike gangs trying to overtake cars with a loud vroom are common on relatively less crowded stretches.
In 2025, a bike gang chased a car on EM Bypass near Patuli for protesting against them zigzagging in front of the vehicle.
The problem is even more acute in the city’s suburbs, where bike gangs, mostly with strong political affiliation, brazenly carry arms and small skirmishes assume dangerous proportions.
Human trafficking
Another curse for women in Bengal’s impoverished pockets.
In 2016, Bengal had the maximum number of cases of human trafficking. In 2023, the numbers say only 29 cases of human trafficking were reported in the state.
Those close to reality do not see improvement there. But a scary tendency to brush things under.
Subhasree Raptan of Goran Bose Gram Vikas Kendra, an NGO working with trafficking survivors in the Sundarban delta, said “almost nothing has changed” over the years.
“The average number of girls we rescue a month ranges between 20 and 22. We used to rescue almost the same number of girls earlier too. Recently, we rescued three girls who had been trafficked twice,” Subhasree said.
Another social worker in this field said the only difference is the modus operandi that traffickers were using to lure girls.
“Now traffickers are using social media to trap young girls. Once the girls fall into the trap, they are secretly videotaped, and later their videos are used to blackmail them and drag them deeper into the racket,” the social worker said.
According to the NCRB 2023 reports, two cases of human trafficking with three victims were reported in Calcutta. However, sources said several girls who live in the rural outskirts of the city are vulnerable to the crime as they are exposed to the aspirations of city life but have no means to fulfil them.
Auto rides
Many who commute regularly complained that the autodrivers are “more aggressive” than before and “less respectful” towards women.
“They have no respect for women or senior citizens. The songs they play these days (in autos) are vulgar, and if you say anything, suddenly all of them will come together and scare you,” said an IT professional who works in Salt Lake’s Sector V and has grown up using public transport in south Calcutta.
Demanding more than the assigned fare, taking a detour without caring to seek permission from the passengers, and reckless driving are some of the major problems that make daily commuters, especially women, feel unsafe.
A resident of Regent Park who did not wish to be named said she had been travelling on the Tollygunge-Behala route for years. She is scared more than ever before when she is the lone passenger on an auto.
“The autorickshaw drivers enjoy political protection, and they have little regard for the laws or the commuters,” she said.
According to Kolkata Police records, 5 per cent of the total accidents in the city are caused by autorickshaws.
Sense of insecurity
Many women who The Telegraph spoke to said they felt “unsafe” every time they stepped out of their home or office at night.
“After the RG Kar incident, I feel unsafe even when I am in my office. Though it is safe here, I feel, who will come to save me if something happens?” asked Rupannita Roy, who works in the retail sector and works late into the night.
A woman was allegedly molested in a moving car and thrown on the road at Behala Chowrasta.
A patient in her teens was raped by a man who wore the staff uniform of SSKM Hospital.
A young woman was confined at the house of a friend and allegedly assaulted and raped in the presence of the man’s parents in the next room.
The insecurity does not end here. Many fear they will not get adequate help if anything happens. “When I was in college, I used to travel to Gariahat from Shyamnagar (in North 24-Parganas). I had never felt unsafe on buses and in trains. Now, when I work till late, it keeps playing at the back of my mind that it may not be safe outside,” said Paramita Basu, a director at an entertainment channel.
According to the NCRB reports of 2023, after the national highest of Rajasthan, where 845 cases of attempted rape were reported, Bengal came second with 825 reported cases.
The NCRB report of 2023 says 34,691 cases of crimes against women were reported in Bengal, the maximum being reported in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan.
Social media
Targeting women via social media is the new menace and mostly unreported.
Although the official records of the NCRB 2023 report say that the reported number of women-related cyber crimes in 2023 was less than 10 in Bengal and nil in Calcutta, in reality, hundreds of women are harassed online and most of them choose not to report.
It is common to see women being threatened with rape, judged or shamed online. Action against such criminals, who often hide behind the web of anonymity that cyberspace offers, is rare.
Poor conviction rate
“Tareekh pe tareekh” (date after date) — that is how many feel the judicial system in the country is. Excruciatingly slow.
The infamous Hetal Parekh case, which attracted the capital punishment for its lone suspect Dhananjay Chatterjee, took 14 years to be executed. Many more cases are yet to see closure.
Even more alarming is the rate of conviction of cases in the state.
Bengal had the second-lowest conviction rate in crime against women, Karnataka being the lowest.
The rate of conviction in Bengal is 3.7 per cent; in Karnataka, it is 3.2 per cent.
This means, for every 100 cases whose trial is completed, the accused in only around 4 cases are convicted. The accused in the remaining 96 are acquitted.
The conviction rate in Nagaland is the highest across India at 83.3 per cent, followed by Mizoram at 69.8 per cent.
Some good at last
Many Calcuttans said there now were more streetlights in their areas and the local scene had improved. There were also many who felt drink driving was less than what it used to be.
She Speaks
AN IT PROFESSIONAL in her 40s
The auto drivers were a lot more respectful earlier. In my college days, there were occasions when they kept prasad for me after Vishwakarma Puja on the route I used to take. Now, the scene is scary on Vishwakarma Puja. The autodrivers open liquor bottles in public and misbehave with the excuse of the puja.
ADITI BASU ROY writer and a mother of an eight-year-old daughter
I feel scared of the bike bahinis. These are young boys who have absolutely no fear of law or life. I fear for my safety and that of my daughter when they are around.
M. ADHIKARI entrepreneur
I had faced harassment once on a bus on my way to Contai. But that is all. I have never faced any problem after that. I feel largely safe.
S. DUTTA homemaker
The lights installed in Patuli have changed the entire neighbourhood. Earlier, the stretch used to be scary. Now, it has become an evening haunt for many.
RUPANNITA ROY works in retail and is an avid solo traveller
I travel all around the country alone. Unfortunately, I do not feel safe in my own city. I avoid taking an early morning flight so that I do not have to book a cab at an odd hour. I somehow feel I may not get the desired help if something happens to me in this city. So I am very cautious.
D. MOZUMDAR IT professional
I had a bad experience while returning from a night show. Some bike-borne men were following me. Unfortunately, there were no cops in our neighbourhood. Luckily, the movie hall was close to my housing complex, and I could sneak into the gate fast.