No Child's Play: Uttar Pradesh Reports Highest Number Of Sexual Offences Against Kids In India

While Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath may make tall claims about his state being safe for everyone, including "buffaloes, bulls or women", data proves otherwise. According to the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) data, Uttar Pradesh (UP) is the worst-performing state when it comes to sexual offences against children.

Most Cases For Unnatural Sex

While 47,221 cases of the Prevention of Child from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act were reported in 28 states and eight Union Territories of India, UP reported the maximum – 6,898 cases of Pocso Act in 2020, reported Hindustan Times.

This is followed by Maharashtra with around 5,687 POSCO cases, Madhya Pradesh with 5,648 cases, Tamil Nadu with 3,090 and West Bengal with 2,657. The statistics also showed that out of 6,898 cases in the state, 2,630 were related to Sections 4 and 6 of the POSCO Act for unnatural sex and penetrative sex with children.

In the majority of cases, the victims were girls (2,533 girls). Ninety-seven victims were boys. It further revealed that around 3,897 were related to sexual assault and aggravated sexual assault with children that included 3,881 girl victims and 16 boys. Around 68 cases were related to sodomy with 67 boys and one girl victim, as per the data.

Umesh Gupta, a child rights activist based in Lucknow, pointed out that the trend indicates that paedophiles and child pornography addicts are now dependent on web content, especially during COVID lockdown.

A 413% Rise In Cyber Crime Against Children

Cybercrimes committed against children witnessed a sharp rise of more than 400 per cent in 2020 from those committed in 2019, according to the latest numbers released by the NCRB. A majority of such offences were related to publishing or transmitting materials showing children in sexually explicit acts, the report said.

A total of 842 instances of cybercrime against children were reported in 2020, the report stated. Meanwhile, 164 cybercrimes against children were reported in 2019, 413 lower than it was in 2020.

Uttar Pradesh again topped the list when it came to the number of online offences against children in 2020 at 170, followed by Karnataka at 144 and Maharashtra at 137. Meanwhile, Karnataka recorded a staggering 1,340% increase in the number of cybercrimes against kids in 2020 over the past year. In 2019, the figure stood at 10.

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