NEW DELHI: Delhi has never been very safe for women, and this is not just a perception. The crime figures for the Capital compared to other cities in India for 2009 reveal that almost one-fourth of the rapes were reported from Delhi.Similarly, almost two-fifth of kidnappings/abductions of women happened in Delhi, 15% of dowry deaths and 14% of molestation cases.The figures released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) of the home ministry on Thursday, show that among 35 mega cities in India, Delhi reported 404 out of 1,696 rapes; 1,379 out of total 3,544 cases of kidnapping and abduction of women, 104 out of 684 dowry deaths and 491 out of 3,477 cases of molestation during the period under study.Among the states, the dubious distinction of the ‘‘rape state’’ has gone to Madhya Pradesh which had reported the highest number of rape cases (2,998), accounting for 14% of all such cases reported in the country. But if one looks at the figures of ‘incest rape’ (that is rape by someone in the family), Chhattisgarh reported the highest number — in all, 107.Incidentally, incest rape cases have increased by 30.7% — from 309 cases in 2008 to 404 cases in 2009 — compared to 0.3% decrease in overall rape cases. Crime experts say the highest number of rapes in the country are incest rapes, although they are often not reported.Besides Delhi, the other cities which reported a large number of rapes are Mumbai (182), Bhopal (117), Jabalpur (76), Jaipur (69) and Pune (67). Incidentally, most of the rapes were committed by offenders who knew the victims.Overall, 21.21 lakh IPC cases (which include violent crimes like murder, attempt to murder, rape, culpabale homicide not amounting to murder, etc) were reported in the country in 2009 compared to 20.93 lakh cases in 2008 — a marginal increase.Among the cities, Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai accounted for 13.2%, 9.4% and 9.1% respectively of the total crimes — over one-third of the total crimes reported from 35 mega cities.If one goes by crime rate (number of crimes per 1,00,000 population), which is an internationally recognised method of arriving at crime figures, it has, in fact, dipped marginally, from 185.5 in 2008 to 181.4 in 2009. As per crime rate, comparatively smaller cities had reported higher crime rate. For example, Indore had reported the highest crime rate among the mega cities in the country, followed by Bhopal and Jaipur.