The State has witnessed an alarming rise in POCSO cases in the last three years. When 1,002 POCSO cases were registered in 2013, the number of cases rose to 1,380 in 2014. The State saw 1,569 POCSO cases in 2015, in spite of an increasing number of preventive measures at different levels. Malappuram, the most populated district, topped with 182 POCSO cases followed by Thiruvananthapuram (163), Thrissur (153), Kozhikode (151), Ernakulam (149), Kollam (135) and Palakkad (114). The number of POCSO cases soared in Malappuram from 103 in 2014 to 182 in 2015. “This is alarming indeed,” said a District Child Protection Unit official. When in Thiruvananthapuram the number of POCSO cases rose from 136 to 163 in 2015, in Thrissur the rise was from 131 to 153. In Kozhikode, the cases rose from 120 to 151. In Ernakulam, the cases shot up from 126 to 149 over a year. But in Kollam, the number of POCSO cases fell from 168 in 2014 to 135 in 215. Kottayam, Alappuzha, Pathanamthitta, Kasaragod and Kannur saw relatively fewer number of POCSO cases in 2015.
