Already scoring high in the list of worst States when it comes to human rights violations and crime against women, Haryana also seems to be grappling with increase in crimes against children. The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has received more than 200 complaints concerning abuse/violation of child rights from Haryana in the past three years.
The State has the third highest number of child abuse/rights violations cases reported to the NCPCR during this time period. According to the data, Uttar Pradesh and national Capital -Delhi tops the chart with highest number of complaints received by the Commission.
The Commission received 60 complaints in 2014-15, 77 in 2013-14 and 69 complaints in 2012-13 from Haryana concerning abuse or violations of child rights. The complaints were of various natures including child abuse, child labour, missing children, child health, policy apathy among others. The child is defined as a person in the 0 to 18 years age group.
The NCPCR has received 8 complaints of sexual abuse/sexual exploitation and other irregularities in child care institutions from Haryana while two such cases were reported from Punjab in the past four years.
The Commission registered about 10 complaints from Haryana's capital-Chandigarh during the time period and neighbouring Punjab reported 60 complaints including 25 complaints in 2012-13, 21 in 2013-14 and 22 in 2014-15.
Preventing child abuse remains a challenging issue before the Haryana Government. As per a latest data, as many as 2402 children were rescued/withdrawn from work and rehabilitated in Haryana during 2014-15 (upto December 2014) under National Child labour Project (NClP). 631 children were rescued/withdrawn from work, rehabilitated and mainstreamed under NClP in 2013-14, 1722 children 2012-13 and 1895 children in year 2011-12.
According to the National Crime Records Bureau, Haryana had registered 1640 incidents of crime against children in 2013. Notably, Haryana ranks third in the country when it comes to atrocities against women. The National Commission for Women (NCW) has received 1720 complaints, the third highest number of cases of crime against women from Haryana during 2014-15.
The State also recorded the second highest number of human rights violation cases reported to National Human Rights Commission in the past three years. Haryana trails only Uttar Pradesh in the cases of human rights violations. The NRHC registered 12262 complaints of human rights violations either suo motu or on complaints or on intimation by the prison and police authorities from Haryana during the time period of April 2014- January 2015.