After a gap of two years, the Indian government has finally released the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data. The latest numbers show a distressing trend when it comes to crimes against children – they have been steadily increasing in the five southern states from 2015 to 2017.
This was reflected in the pan India numbers too – crimes against children under IPC and Special and Local Laws (SLL) increased across India – from 94,172 in 2015 to 1,06,958 in 2016, and 1,29,032 in 2017. The overcall rate of crime against children in India in 2017 was 28.9 per one lakh children, as compared to 24 in 2016.
This rise in numbers could also be due to the fact that there is more awareness about crimes against children with a higher number of people reporting it.
At 14.8% each, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh recorded the highest share of crimes against children per the latest numbers.
Among the southern states, Karnataka consistently reported a higher number of crimes against children since 2015 – a trend that held true in 2017 also. Going up from 3,961 in 2015 to 4,455 in 2016, the state registered 5,890 crimes against minors in 2017. The state’s capital, Bengaluru, also had the most child victims among southern metros, and was the fourth highest in India with 1,582 cases.
In Andhra Pradesh, from 1,992 cases registered for crimes against children in 2015, the number rose to 2,397 in 2017. For Kerala, with 3,562 cases of cases of crimes against children in 2017, the hike from 2016 was by 683 cases. Telangana and Tamil Nadu reported 3,580 and 3,529 crimes against children under various local laws and IPC sections for 2017.
Among southern states, Telangana recorded the highest number of murder of children with rape/ Protection of Children Under Sexual Offences (POCSO), with 10 victims. Meanwhile, Karnataka had the highest number of children murdered (case registered under section 302 of the IPC) among southern states at 109, and fourth highest in India after Uttar Pradesh (392), Maharashtra (161) and Madhya Pradesh (115). Karnataka also had the highest incidence across India of children kidnapped for the purpose of begging, with 60 victims.
Tamil Nadu recorded the highest number of girls kidnapped for forcing them into marriage, among the southern states. However, all southern states recorded lower numbers in this regard compared to 2016.
None of the southern metropolitan cities factored into the report – Bengaluru, Chennai, Coimbatore, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kozhikode – registered a single case of foeticide.
Three southern states figured in the 10 Indian states with the highest number of POCSO cases. Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh performed worst with 5,248 and 4,895 incidents respectively. The other states among the ten were West Bengal (2,131), Karnataka (1,956), Gujarat (1,697), Chhattisgarh (1,676), Telangana (1,632), Tamil Nadu (1,587), Madhya Pradesh (1,569) and Bihar (1,356). And while Kerala was not among these, it did see the greatest number of sexual assaults on children among the southern states, and sixth highest overall.
Delhi had the highest number of POCSO cases among Indian metros at 1,521, followed by Mumbai, Pune and Bengaluru respectively.
In 93.6% cases of aggravated penetrative sexual assault on children, the perpetrator was known to the victim. The most common perpetrators were family members/friends/neighbours/other known persons.
Further, increasing reports of child sexual abuse material (referred in other media as child pornography) online across platforms like WhatsApp, TikTok and others, over the last of couple of years, the NCRB numbers do not reflect this. Save seven, Indian states report no cases regarding publication or transmission of material depicting children in sexually explicit acts. Nowhere has more than one case been registered.