Report: Delhi ranks first and Mumbai second in cases of crimes against children

In this era of information technology, while mobile has been benefited almost every hand, there have been many benefits to society, while the opposite results are also coming out. Due to the free unlimited internet package, easy access to porn movies, and lack of government and legal control over child pornography, websites, and web series, people of criminal instinct is directly becoming minor children.

While sexual offenses from children are legally considered to be heinous, with a provision of up to 10 years of life imprisonment and the death penalty. Despite this, the number of child sex crimes is increasing continuously. According to the NCRB's 2015-17 data and survey conducted by the institution Pourush and National Men's Commission Coordination Committee Delhi in 2018, the status of child sex crimes in the top five cities across the country is as follows-

Status of sex crimes in the top five cities of the country

Delhi topped the country's top five cities in 2018 with 7,665 cases of child sexual abuse, while Mumbai ranked second with 4,206 cases, Bangalore third with 1771 cases, Pune 1508 fourth and Indore fifth with 941 cases. Indore has an average of 2.6 child sex crimes a day and 18 cases a week.

Similarly, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, and Madhya Pradesh are ranked first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh respectively in the top seven states of the country.

City 2015 2016 2017 2018

Delhi 8035 7392 6844 7665

Mumbai 3187 3400 3790 4206

Bangalore 1068 1333 1582 1771

Pune 1095 1180 1335 1508

Indore 478 631 798 941

What is PROTECTION OF CHILDREN FROM SEXUAL OFFENCES

The Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses Act was enacted in 2002. A new bill was amended in 2019, which provides for the protection of children from crimes like sexual exploitation, sexual harassment, and pornography.

Special fast track courts set up in 18 states

A bench of the then-Supreme Court Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justices Deepak Gupta, and Anirudh Bose ordered the setting up of special courts under the POCSO Act. Under this, the Central Government had approved setting up 1,023 special fast-track courts for speedy trial of sexual offenses and rape cases against children, in which such courts have already been set up in 18 states.

The government has maintained a national database of sex offenders, covering 6,20,000 offenders. According to Ashok Dashora, president of the organization Pourush Indore and national spokesperson of the National Commission for Men, Delhi, it is extremely important to ban porn sites and awaken the social consciousness.

90 percent of cases are suppressed

Indian society and law are obsessed with the idea that if a sexual offense has happened to a girl child, it is a very heinous crime, while family, media, society, and the law all take lightly sexual misconduct with a child. The truth is that 90 percent of sexual misconduct with children does not complain.

Legally there are very stringent provisions of sexual offenses against minor children. Child sexual offenses are classified as heinous, which carries a punishment up to the death penalty, but these crimes cannot be stopped by just enacting stringent laws. By raising social consciousness by the government, banning child pornography can prevent such crimes to a large extent.