In the first quarter of this year, about 400 cases of sexual assault against children were registered across the country. And Kerala alone has reported about 145 cases, the highest among all States till March this year. Kerala is followed by Andhra Pradesh which recorded 110 cases and Maharashtra 95 cases under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act 2012 till March, Parliament was informed on Thursday.
Tamil Nadu recorded 30 cases in March while Delhi recorded 16 such cases till February this year.last year, total 12,363 cases were registered across India under POCSO Act with highest number of cases being reported in Madhya Pradesh (2112) followed by Maharashtra (1546), Uttar Pradesh (1381), Rajasthan (892) and Delhi (757).
As many as 2061 persons were convicted in 1611 cases and the conviction rate was 31.5 per cent.In 2012, a total 8541 cases were registered across the country and 1447 persons were convicted in 1158 cases recording a conviction rate of 28.2 per cent, the Women and Child Development Ministry.Statistics from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) show that a total of 33,098 cases of crimes against children were reported in the country during 2011 as compared to 26,694 cases during 2010, suggesting an increase of 24.0 per cent.
NCRB report showed that Madhya Pradesh topped the list of child abuse with 9465 cases, followed by Maharashtra with 6868 cases followed by UP (5949) and Andhra Pradesh (3977). Delhi with 2909 cases is sixth on the list, which has data for 13 States.