GUWAHATI: Assam saw a 37.41 per cent increase in the number of crimes against children from 2016 to 2018. This was revealed in the recently released data by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).
As per the ‘Crime in India 2018’ report by the NCRB, Assam recorded 5,447 cases of crimes against children in 2018. The state has seen a consistent increase in crimes against children the over the past three years. A total of 3, 964 cases of crimes were registered against children in Assam in 2016. This rose to 4,951 in 2017 which further increased to 5,447 registered cases in 2018.
The crimes are categorised under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Special Local Laws (SLL) such as murder, kidnapping and abduction, infanticide, foeticide, missing children and child trafficking among others.
Assam saw 49 cases in total registered under child trafficking in 2018 while eight cases were recorded for selling of minors for prostitution.
As per the latest NCRB data, Assam’s percentage state share to all India is 3.4 per cent.
On the other hand, the state recorded 1721 cases under the Protection of Children against Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
Additionally, out of the total cases of crimes against children in Assam, the police prepared charge sheets in 3,334 cases, whereas, the state police managed to dispose off 5,183 cases during 2018.
When asked about the reasons for the large number of cases pending for disposal, police officials claimed that the primary cause for this is the lack of adequate manpower.
Pointing to other causes for this, Mousumi Kalita, former in-charge of the all women’s police station in Guwahati told G Plus, “Sometimes, since the victims are children, we cannot force them for their statements since they are often scared and traumatised. In a lot of cases, we have seen that the parents of the victims too, do not want them to come forward and do not cooperate during investigation. These are the reasons due to which the case gets delayed.”
