NCRB was set-up in 1986 to function as a repository of information on crime and criminals so as to assist the investigators in linking crime to the perpetrators based on the recommendations of the Tandon Committee to the National Police Commission (1977-1981) and the MHA’s Taskforce (1985).

• NCRB was entrusted with the responsibility for monitoring, coordinating and implementing the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems (CCTNS) project in the year 2009. The project connects 15000+ police stations and 6000 higher offices of police in the country.
• NCRB launched the National Digital Police Portal. It allows search for a criminal/suspect on the CCTNS database apart from providing various services to citizens like filing of complaints online and seeking antecedent verification of tenants, domestic help, drivers etc.

Why in News?

After a delay of two years, The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) has released its crime statistics for the year 2017.

Objectives:

NCRB has five major objectives and it also fulfils several other functions:

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Functions:

• A Citizen Services Mobile App consisting of the 9 services was launched by the Bureau.
• Entrusted to maintain National Database of Sexual Offenders (NDSO) and share it with the States/UTs on a regular basis.
• Designated as the Central Nodal Agency to manage technical and operational functions of the ‘Online Cyber-Crime Reporting Portal’ through which any citizen can lodge a complaint or upload a video clip as evidence of crime related to child pornography, rape/gang rape.
• Compiles and publishes National Crime Statisticse. Crime in India, Accidental Deaths & Suicides and also Prison Statistics. 
• Serve as a principal reference point to policymakers, police, criminologists, researchers and media, both in India and abroad. 
• IT-based Public Services like Vahan Samanvay (online matching for Stolen/Recovered vehicles) and Talash (matching of missing persons and dead bodies) is maintained.
• Maintains Counterfeit Currency Information and Management System (FICN) and Integrated Monitoring on Terrorism (iMoT) applications.
• Assists various States in capacity building in the area of Information Technology, CCTNS, Finger Prints, Network security and Digital Forensics through its training centres.
• Very recently, the Government of India has asked the IT companies across the world to send proposals to NCRB (National Crime Record Bureau) to install the world’s largest facial recognition system.

Key findings in a recently published Report of 2107:

• The new subheads reportedly include data on hate crimes besides those related to mob lynching, killings ordered by khap panchayaths, murders by influential people, besides “ anti-national elements”.
• Women safety: Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and West Bengal are deemed most unsafe for women.
• Riots cases: There were 58,880 incidents of rioting in 2017 of which the maximum incidents were reported from Bihar at 11,698, followed by Uttar Pradesh at 8,990. Of the total, communal and sectarian riots accounted for the largest.
• Among union territories, Delhi recorded the most murder cases in 2017 at 487 (40.4 % of the total crimes recorded in metropolitan cities).
• Fake news: NCRB for the first time collected data on the circulation of “false/fake news and rumours.” Maximum incidents were reported from Madhya Pradesh (138).
• The new category of offences committed by various categories of “Anti-National Elements” shows: Maximum offences were committed by Left Wing Extremist (LWE) operatives (652), followed by North-East insurgents (421) and Terrorists (Jihadi and other elements) (371). Most killings took place in Chhattisgarh. 

Drawbacks of the report:

• The NCRB data on crime hide significant variances in case registration of serious crimes such as rapes and violence against women across States, which make it difficult to draw state-wise comparisons.
• The use of census base year 2001 to calculate crime rates of states and 2011 for metropolitan cities makes the assessments unwieldy.

Conclusion:

Despite all these issues, the report offers a useful snapshot of crime in the country. Some crimes, murders, for example, do not suffer from registration issues as much. The 2017 report shows that the States in the North –East and the rest of the country with a significant tribal population  (Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha) have relatively higher murder rates and this is a cause of worry.