CAN KERALA BE A CRIME FREE STATE?

This question is not to the people of the state but to the political parties who are ruling the state one after the other for over seven decades. In order to manipulate a negative answer to this they cannot come up with dearth of fund, shortage of staff, delay in getting sanction from the central government or any such impediments. What stops them from taking a step towards this? The only reason what the people can find to this is that almost all political parties have their own contributions to commit crimes either directly or indirectly. In other words they are the ones who organise crimes and maintain criminals. Despite having one of the most efficient police forces of the country the successive governments do not take effective steps to reap their efficiency to check crime.

According to figures compiled by NCRB till 2010 Kerala has a crime rate of 424.1 whereas the national average is 187.6. In the case of cities Kochi stands on top at 1879.8 against the national average of 341.9. (The figures denote  number of crimes per lakh of population) As far as violent crimes are concerned Kerala has 11,756 in it's kitty as against a much larger state like Rajasthan with 10,577. However, we cannot deny the fact that while almost all crimes are reported to police in Kerala, only a negligible numbers are reported in other states. That could be the reason for higher figures against this state.

Efficient tracking and stringent punishment are the two prime weapons that help to prevent crime.  Undue interference by politicians and government officials make severe hindrance in tracking of crime well in time and most effectively. Tracking of all incoming phone calls to the police station and the police officials can check this to some extent. Another very important matter needs consideration is setting up of an open prison for habitual offenders. Anyone coming out of the prison after undergoing punishment for a crime, if found repeating the same offence, should be treated as a habitual offender and sent into the open prison for a suitable period. Such people must be kept away from the society until they are reformed. Another menace is crimes by quotation. One can ask a professional criminal to harm or kill any person for a mutually decided sum. This is quotation crime. Fortunately, complete details of   such criminals are available with the police. If the government gives a green signal to the police, all of them shall be put behind bars in hours. For unknown reasons no government gives such green signals.

Crime against women is very much on the rise in Kerala. There were 16,755 cases of rape between 2007-2017(July). 5,430 involved in these cases were children. If we really want to put an end to this we must tell this to the coming generation. All about the criminal activities in our society should be brought into the school syllabus from class one to twelve. They should be allowed to take part in creative discussions,  so that tomorrow they will try to put an end to this. It is quite appalling that according to ncrb.gov.in 176,334 crimes were reported in Kerala during 2013,  which includes murder - 372, rape - 1221, robbery - 784, kidnapping - 252, theft - 4,079, and burglary - 2,929. Kerala is on the top in criminal activities in our country followed by Delhi, Chandigarh, MP and Puducherry.

While the state is putting commendable efforts to improve the inflow of tourists we must also concentrate on bringing down the crime rate of the state to zero as no tourist prefers a destination full of criminals, however beautiful it may be.

KV George