Telangana Sees Increasing Crimes Against Children
Analysis of data in the last report by the National Crimes Record Bureau between 2020 and 2023 by Child Rights and You (CRY), an NGO, showed a marginal drop in 2020 in the number of cases, following by a sharp spike in 2021: Reports
HYDERABAD: Crimes against children have risen nearly 71 per cent in Telangana in the six years between 2017 and 2023, official data show. The rise in crimes against children appear to have picked up in the four years between 2020 and 2024, registering a 45.55-per cent rise, compared to 17.32 per cent rise in the previous four-year period.
Analysis of data in the last report by the National Crimes Record Bureau between 2020 and 2023 by Child Rights and You (CRY), an NGO, showed a marginal drop in 2020 in the number of cases, following by a sharp spike in 2021.
Even more alarming, CRY said in its analysis released on Monday, was that sexual and kidnap offences against children formed a significant portion of such crimes in Telangana. There was a 38.3 per cent rise in sexual crimes against children from 2022 to 2023, it said, adding that one possible reason could be attributed to more such crimes being reported to the police.
Kidnaps and sexual offences that fall under the Pocso Act accounted to 84 per cent all crimes against children in 2023, CRY said, adding that the NCRB data for that year showed that in the same year nearly all of the victims in Pocso cases — 99.8 per cent — suffered at the hands of people they were familiar with, whether in person, or online.
According to John Roberts, regional director for CRY, urgent interventions including adolescent-focused protection and empowerment programmes, particularly for girls aged 12-18, and strengthening of village and ward child protection committees to identify and address risks from known persons and online platforms could help mitigate some of the crisis of children falling victims to sexual abuse.
“The state must also shift focus from general crime reduction to dismantling the specific socio-economic and criminal networks that drive child exploitation, especially in the areas of trafficking and child marriage,” Roberts said.
