Rising crimes against women 

November 28, 2025

We never tire of talking about women’s equality, empowerment, and women’s awakening. However, the recent incident in Jalandhar, Punjab, where a 43-year-old man allegedly raped and then murdered a 13-year-old girl, has shamed not just a region or city, but the entire society. Such brutality against the girl has sparked outrage across society. Accused are arrested, trials continue, and cases drag on for years. The question is, why don’t such incidents stop?

News of such brutal acts against women continues to pour in from nearby and faraway lands, and the accused use every means possible to evade the law. They feel neither remorse nor shame. This undoubtedly reflects a decaying society. The United Nations has just released some new statistics that indicate that these brutal acts against women are occurring not just in one city or state, but throughout the world.

The United Nations states that every ten minutes, a woman (or girl) is murdered by a close relative. On average, 137 women or girls are murdered daily, while the equivalent number of male murders accounts for only 11 percent of total murders. If women were victims of male abuse in past centuries, they remain in the same situation today. If this is happening across the country and the world, what progress have we made?
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the United Nations Women stated in a report released on Monday that this male tendency to murder women, combined with gender inequality, is taking the lives of thousands of women worldwide. Perpetrators face no immediate punishment. The report indicates that 83,000 women were intentionally murdered last year.
Of these, 60 percent, or 50,000 women and girls, were murdered by their intimate partners or family members. These figures are not unique to India; even more murders are occurring in countries across Africa, the Americas, and Asia. We live in a brutal world where women are still victimized. This is a matter of grave concern.