2,500 women raped in 9 months in India's province

As many as 2,500 women were raped in Madhya Pradesh in the last nine months - including 233 who were gang-raped - which works out to an average of nine rapes a day, Home Minister Uma Shankar Gupta told the state assembly on Tuesday. The state also saw 5,700 people committing suicide in the first ten months of 2011, averaging to 19 per day. The home minister gave the figures in a written reply to a query by Congress member Ramniwas Rawat. The rape figures are for the period Feb 1-Oct 29, Gupta said.  Baitul district tops the chart with 64 rape cases registered in nine months, while the state capital is also not much safe for woman, coming second in the list with 56 cases of rape. To another question of Rawat, Gupta said 19 people, on an average, ended their lives each day between Jan 1 and Oct 28 this year. With 403 suicides each, Jabalpur and Satna districts led the list, and were followed by the state's financial capital Indore with 311 cases of suicide.  Bhopal was also among top five districts, with 197 cases of suicide.