Hyderabad: The National Crime Records Bureau recorded a total of 5,667 crimes against children in 2021. This means that over 15 crimes were committed per day in the year, stated Child Rights and You (CRY) in their analysis.
The NCRB data analysis reveals that there has been a significant increase of 34.96% of such cases from the previous year, from 4200 in 2020 to 5667 cases in 2021.
An analysis of the last five years reveals that crimes against children in Telangana went by 58.3 % over 2017-2021, which is 42.5 % higher than the pan-India increase of 15.8%.
NCRB 2021 data highlights that there have been a total of 1,836 children who were victims of crimes, of which a whopping 1,835 were girls and only one was a boy (6-12 years), clearly pointing out the vulnerability of girls being victims of crimes and criminal activities. The highest number of crimes were committed against girls in the 12-16 years age group with 918 cases, followed by 741 cases in age group of 16-18 years, making it a total of 1,659 cases in the 12-18 years age group out of the total 1,836 crimes against girls.
Also, under Sections 4 and 6 of POCSO Act (Sec.376 IPC), 99.9% of victims were girl children.
In terms of major crimes, the state recorded 1,748 cases of Kidnapping and Abduction of Children, 2,698 cases of crimes under POCSO, 102 cases of Assault on Women with Intent to Outrage her Modesty, and 45 cases under ‘Simple Hurt’ category. There were no cases of rape reported in the state.
In terms of cybercrimes, Telangana reported the highest number of such cases in India, with a whopping 17 cases.
Shedding light on the need to strengthen protection mechanisms for children, John Roberts, regional director of CRY said, “It is worrisome that criminal activities in Telangana are rocketing. It is absolutely crucial to address the increasing concern for children’s protection, both at the level of the system and in society. At the systemic level, there is a need to allocate adequate resources and budget for child protection and society so that the implementation of schemes and child protection systems can be strengthened.”
“In terms of society, it is crucial for every citizen to realize their role and be vigilant, report cases of crimes against children. Also, child-protection mechanisms in the communities including Village Child Protection Committees (VCPCs) need to be empowered since they are the vigilant task force responsible to avert crimes at the village-level and can play a significant role in protecting children,” he added.
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