Crime against Children Rises in India

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It was noted that Maharashtra accounted for 74 percent of the total 27 cases of "buying of girls for prostitution" while West Bengal recorded for 77 percent of the total 113 cases of "selling of girls for prostitution".

43 percent increase in cases of abduction were noted last year, while cases of rape increased by 30 percent. UP and Delhi together accounted for 47.6 percent abduction of children while MP, UP and Maharashtra together accounted for 44.5 percent of child rape cases in 2011.

India's chief statistician T C A Anant said "Even today, after six decades of independence, the condition of children remains a cause of concern in the country. As the statistics speaks out loudly, we have miles to go to ensure a bright future for the children in all spheres of their life," as reported by TOI.

Further, the report revealed that feticide cases increased by 19 percent in 2011, most of them were registered from Madhya Pradesh, followed by Chhattisgarh and Punjab. The three states together recorded 56 percent of the feticide cases last year.

The report also highlighted that the procurement of minor girls saw a 27 percent rise with 862 cases in 2011 compared to 679 cases in 2010. West Bengal reported the highest number of these cases (298), followed by Bihar (183), Assam (142) and Andhra Pradesh (106).

The highest charge sheet rate was observed in cases of 'buying of girls for prostitution' (100 percent) followed by 'rape' (97.3 percent) when compared to the existing national level charge-sheeting rate of 78.8 percent for the IPC crimes. The lowest charge sheet rate was noted to be in cases of feticide.

The conviction rate at national level for the crimes committed against children was 34.6 percent. The conviction rate for 'infanticide (other than murder)' was the maximum at 46.9 percent followed by cases under 'murder' at 45.5 percent.

In case of crimes against children, Delhi topped the crime rate (ratio of number of crimes to population) (25.4) followed by Andaman and Nicobar Islands (20.3), Chandigarh (7) and Chhattisgarh (7), Madhya Pradesh (6) and Goa (5.1).

It was seen that 22,740 IPC crimes by juveniles were registered during 2010 which increased to 25,125 cases in 2011. Out of the total 888 juvenile murder cases reported in the country in 2011, Maharashtra and MP reported 16.3 and 12.6 percent cases respectively. Even the highest incidence of the juvenile rape cases was reported from MP (23.6 percent) followed by UP (12.7 percent) and Maharashtra (10.9 percent).

However, the positive trend in the report was that in 2011, buying of girls for prostitution showed a decline of 65 percent, and selling of girls for prostitution reported a decline of 13 percent compared to the previous year. Infanticide cases were also noted to decline by 37 points.