Cases of Child Sexual Abuse in the national Capital have increased by almost 1,784 per cent, says the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) in its report of 2016. This means that every day, four minor children have been reported to be sexually assaulted or harassed.
As per the latest data on Child Sexual Abuse cases which are registered under the Protection Of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act 2012, in 2015, from January 1 till December 31, Delhi reported 86 cases of Child Sexual Abuse while in 2016, in the same time period, 1620 cases of child sexual abuse were reported in the city. Around 85 per cent of cases of sexual abuse take place inside homes or slums or at places known to the victims. In 38.89 per cent of the cases, the accused are relatives, the data indicates.
A senior Delhi Police officer said that the rise in the registration of POCSO cases is due to widespread awareness among the public, there is an increase in the reporting of cases.
Talking about the loopholes in the cases registered under the POCSO Act, a senior police officer told The Pioneer, “Although the case is registered, it takes a long time to establish the role of the accused.
This loophole thus gives time to the accused to convince the family of the victim to withdraw their charges.” The officer said that almost 90% of POCSO cases have both the victim and accused belonging to the same community or colony.
Accordingly, as per the study conducted by the Delhi Police in 2016, 84% of child rapes took place in houses or in slum clusters where the accused were known to the victim, and 39% of the crimes were found to involve the friends of the victims. The National Crime Records Bureau data of the same year showed that on average, only 61% of sexual cases were reported by economically disadvantaged groups. The data also recorded that 71 rape victims were aged below six years, while 806 were in the age group of 18-30.