Under the various provisions of the Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, as many as 1,554, cases were registered by the police across the State during the first seven months of this year.
These include 638 rape cases. The highest number of cases under POCSO was registered in Thiruvananthapuram district — 205. Kollam district followed with 162 cases.
In Ernakulam district, 160 cases were registered and in Kozhikode district 150 cases were registered during the period. The figures for the other districts are Malappuram — 123 cases, Thrissur — 120;,Idukki and Palakkd — 97 each, Kottayam — 96, Kannur — 91, Alappuzha — 67, Pathanamthitta — 57, Kasaragod — 66, and Wayanad — 58. Five cases were also registered by the Railway police.
The statistics released by the State police show that POCSO cases were registered in all districts every month and in some months it crossed more than 20 in some districts. The number of POCSO cases registered in the State during the corresponding period last year was 1,169 cases and during the whole of last year, 2,122 cases.
The POCSO Act came into force in November 2012 and that year only 77 cases were registered under the Act. The registration of POCSO cases in the State since then shows a rise annually. While no infanticide cases were reported during the first seven months of this year, statistics show that 16 children were murdered during the period.
Twelve cases were also registered under the provisions of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act. Last year, the police had registered 958 cases in which minors were raped.
