The latest report compiled by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) for 2015 relating to violence against children paints a grim picture and depicts the horrible truth about child abuse in the country.
While crimes against women have decreased, crimes against children spiked by 5.3 per cent, from 89,423 in 2014 to 94,172 in 2015.
Almost 44.5 per cent of these crimes include kidnapping and abduction of children.
According to the data, 8,800 cases of rape on children were registered across the country under the Protection of Children Against Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) and around 25% of them were committed by employers and co-workers, reported Indian Express.
These are the other shocking facts from the report:
- 14,913 cases were registered under POCSO in 2015
- 8,800 of these cases were of rape
- 35.8% of these crimes were committed by neighbours
- In over 10 per cent of rape cases in 2015, culprits were own family members or relatives.
- In 94.8 per cent of cases, children were subjected to rape by someone known to them.
These figures not only indicate the extreme vulnerability of children at their workplace and homes but also the kind of exploitation they face at the hands of their employers in closed spaces. Also any kind of violence occurring in such private settings makes it very difficult to detect and prevent. And what’s disturbing is that in most cases, perpetrators are known to the child and therefore, amounts to breach of trust.
Amod Kanth, former police officer and founder of the NGO Prayas, told IE that as opposed to common thought, in these cases there were as many male victims of child abuse as female.
Delhi yet again earned the dubious distinction of India’s crime capital with 13,921 cases and a crime rate of 169.4, the highest in the country, making it very unsafe for children. Madhya Pradesh came a close second with 12,859 cases and a rate of 42.8.