2020 marked the end of a decade. We review various indicators through this decade in a series of stories. Data from the NCRB indicates that the crime rate increased during this 10-year period both in the case of crimes against women and crimes against SCs. The year 2020 is the last year of the previous decade. At this important juncture, we take a look at the trend in various indicators during this decade. The year 2020 was full of uncertainties. Amidst the unprecedented pandemic situation, India also witnessed tensions at the borders, natural disasters like cyclones and torrential rains, and locust attacks. One of the possible implications of an economic upheaval could be an increase in crimes as a result of unemployment. The data pertaining to the crime scene in India in 2020 is yet to be released. The National Crime Records Bureau releases the annual report on ‘Crimes in India’ that provides data on all the registered crimes in a calendar year. For instance, the data for the year 2019 was released in September 2020. But, the reports for 2017 and 2018 were released back to back after a delay of 1-2 years in the latter half of 2019. In this story, we take a look at the trend in the rate of crimes against women as well the atrocities committed against Scheduled Castes (SCs) in the previous decade i.e., 2010 to 2019. Crime rate gives a clearer picture of the Crime situation Instead of the actual number of crimes which usually is dependent on population & other factors, Crime rates reveal a more accurate picture since the rate is normalized for population differences. It should be noted that the crime rate for 2011 was calculated in the NCRB’s report using the provisional population census of 2011 whereas the crime rates for 2012 have been calculated on the basis of projected mid-year population for 2012 based on the 2001 Census data. The projected population for some states is less than the provisional population of 2011 Census data. Similar projections for respective years have been used in the subsequent reports up to 2017. Projections based on the 2011 census have been used in the 2018 and 2019 reports. With respect to crimes against SCs, provisional census data of 2011 has been used in 2012 also. The actual population as per the 2011 census has been used since then. At the same time, the crime rate in the case of crimes against women & SCs was calculated based on the total population till 2011. However, from 2012, the rate was calculated based on the population of the respective group (one lakh women, one lakh SCs, etc). Hence in all these categories, there is a sudden increase in the crime rate in 2012. Rate of registered rape cases increased post Nirbhaya incident and come down since 2016 The year 2020 began with the issuance of a death warrant for the four convicts in the gruesome 2012 Nirbhaya gangrape incident. Following repeated petitions filed by the convicts to delay their execution, the four were finally hanged in Tihar in the early hours of 20 March 2020, more than seven years after the incident. The incident resulted in a huge public outcry demanding safety for women. The incident also pushed the government to make changes to the existing laws that prescribe increased punishment for the offenders. Post this incident, there was a substantial increase in the number of registered rape cases. In 2013, the year following this incident, the number of registered rape cases went up by over 30%. The rate of registered rapes is calculated per lakh population and is observed to have increased from 4.26 in 2012 to almost 5.7 in 2013. That is, in 2012, four to five women out of every one lakh person reported a case of rape. This increased to almost six women per lakh population in 2013 following the Nirbhaya incident. It is also observed that the crime rate in the case of rape reached a high of 6.3 in 2016 and has come down since then. The incident paved the way for the Nirbhaya fund to be launched by the government in 2013 to bolster women’s safety in the country. Further, the Juvenile delinquency law was amended in 2015 to allow the trial of children aged 16 to 18 years as adults for heinous crimes such as rape and murder. Conviction rate in cases of rape is between 26-27% In an earlier story by Factly, it was observed that the conviction rate in cases of rape (calculated as a percentage of cases which resulted in conviction among those cases whose trials were completed in that year) was always between 26 to 27% in the last two decades except in 2017 when it crossed 30%.