The number of cases registered by the police under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act in the State has more than doubled in three years. From 1,002 cases in 2013, it has increased to 2,093 in 2016, as per the Kerala State Commission for Protection of Child Rights.
Details regarding all POCSO cases registered with police stations are collected by the State Crime Records Bureau and made available to the child rights commission through an online mechanism.
Significantly, the POCSO Act stipulates that the police should furnish details regarding all cases to the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) concerned. However, as per data collected by the commission from the CWCs, details regarding only 1,096 cases are available for 2016. In 2015, the figure was 697 as against 1,569 cases reported by the police. This underlines the fact that the police have failed to report all POCSO cases to the CWCs.
The maximum number of cases reported in 2016 was from Thiruvananthapuram, followed by Malappuram.
The safety of children even in their homes has been flagged for some years now. An analysis shows that of the 2,491 accused, 67% (1,663) were known to the children. Neighbours comprised 26% of the accused, family members 8%, and relatives 7%.
As many as 817 crimes occurred in children’s homes, while 406 took place in public places, and 252 in accused’s homes.
Age break-up
As many as 1,029 children against whom sexual crimes were committed were in the 15-18 age group, while there were 800 in the 10-14 age group. In 2% of the cases, the children were in the 0-4 age group.
As much as 14% of the children who were sexually exploited were from the Scheduled Castes (SC) and 5% from the Scheduled Tribes (ST). The SCs and STs constitute only 9.09% and 1.45% respectively of the State’s population. This shows that the number of children from the SCs and STs against whom sexual crimes have been committed is relatively higher.
