HYDERABAD: A 15-year-old girl was lured into sexual intercourse by a man who promised to marry her. Upon the girl getting pregnant, the man refused to tie the knot, despite repeated pleas from the minor’s family. The victim, a Madiga, belongs to the SC community and the perpetrator is from the Yadav community, a backward class group. The victim filed a police case against the accused under Karkhana Police Station limits following which the man was convicted under the POCSO Act recently.

A study on teenage pregnancies by the State Forensic Science Laboratory (TSFSCL) paints a grim picture. Both the perpetrators and the victims of cases that come before the lab for paternity tests mostly belong to underprivileged communities.

Through the first-of-its-kind research, the laboratory found crimes — sexual assault and rape are common causes for teenage pregnancies in the State. The number of civil cases — in which the paternity of the child is tested — that TSFSCL received is relatively less.

The research titled Study of adolescent/teenage pregnancy in disputed paternity cases received at Forensic Science Laboratory published in the International Journal of Health Sciences and Research recently analysed cases between 2000 and 2014.

A DNA profiling test using short tandem repeat analysis to compare and confirm two DNA samples was conducted on more than 3,000 samples in the two Telugu-speaking States.

The youngest victim was 12 years old while the youngest perpetrator in the cases scrutinised was 15 years. They victims were mainly agricultural labourers (47.92 per cent), housekeepers, beedi rollers (8.1 per cent) and government employees (12.4 per cent).

The perpetrators were agricultural labourers (17.42 per cent), private firm employees (12.5 per cent), students (11.17 per cent), drivers (14.83 per cent) and those performing traditional caste roles (9.58 per cent). Interestingly, civil cases from Andhra Pradesh were high compared to Telangana.

“Pregnancies among teens due to criminal or civil cases are mostly among SC/ST and other backward castes. Though the study was conducted between 2000 and 2014, the situation continues to be the same even today,” said S Gautami, I/C joint director, TSFSCL and researcher of the study.