Data from the NCRB shows that crimes against children are reported under 42 different crime heads. Of these, the number of crimes under 21 crime heads has shown an increase, while those under 20 other crime heads have decreased between 2017 to 2022. Crimes related to Kidnapping & Abduction, and sexual offences showed a steep increase across most states.
In the previous story on Crimes Against Children (CAC), based on the compilation of the National Crime Record Bureau’s (NCRB) data, Factly’s analysis showed an 81% increase in nine years in the number of crimes committed against children in India from 89,423 in 2014 to 1,62,449 in 2022.
In this story, we look at the different types of CACs that have shown decreasing and increasing trends from the year 2016 to 2022.
Methodology and Limitations to the Data Recorded by NCRB
The data has been sourced from the Collection of Datasets on Crimes Against Children made by Dataful compiled from the NCRB reports. The analysis is limited to only the 29 states of India, excluding Union Territories. Along with this, the same methodology and the limitation of NCRB data recording such as the Principal Offence Rule method, etc., as were described in the previous story apply to this set of data also.
Over Half of the Crimes Have increased against Children
The NCRB records data of 42 different types of CACs, against 8 Principal Legislations viz. Indian Penal Code (IPC), Special and Local Laws (SLL) such as the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, Juveniles Justice Act (JJA), Immoral Traffic Act (ITA), Child Labour Act (CLA), Prohibition of Child Marriage Act (PCMA), Information Technology Act (ITA) and Transplantation of Organs Act (TOA). Apart from these, the NCRB also records crimes that are committed under other SLL Laws but does not specify the names of these laws in the reports.
Under these 8 Principal Laws, the NCRB records data of 4 legislations, namely IPC, POCSO, JJA, and ITA, by categorizing them according to the different types of crimes under pertinent sections in these legislations.
The analysis of data under 42 different crime heads shows that while the number of crimes under 21 crime heads has increased, the number under 20 other crime heads has decreased from the year 2017 to 2022. No crime was registered under TOA either in 2017 or in 2022.
Kidnapping and Abduction Crimes witness a steep increase
The IPC sections 359 to 369 define and prescribe punishment for various types of Kidnapping and Abduction (K&A) related crimes. The comparison of the data under these sections of all states between 2017 and 2022 shows that the number of crimes under K&A has increased from 48,384 to 68,165 indicating an increase of about 29% in 6 years. When compared to the overall number of CACs in these respective years, the proportion of K&A crimes alone stands at 40% and 44% respectively. Therefore, the data shows that a significant proportion of CACs are crimes relating to Kidnapping & Abduction.
The K&A related crimes are further categorized under different sub-heads. The analysis of this data shows that while the number of crimes under some of these have decreased, the numbers under the others have substantially increased.
Data shows that among 9 different types of K&A related crimes, the number of cases registered under four has reduced in number. Of these, while the K&A for Ransom has shown a marginal decrease from 87 to 82, the importation of girls from other countries has down to zero from 2 in 2017. The other two types of crimes namely K&A for Murder and Procuration of Minor Girls have shown significant reduction from 144 to 26 and 3382 to 1826, respectively during this period.
The number of crimes under the other five K&A related crimes has increased significantly. The number of Missing Children, who are deemed as Kidnapped, has increased doubly from 14,829 to 30,158 during this period. Further, the number of K&A of Children with unknown reasons and the K&A of Minor girls to compel for Marriage has also increased from 14,392 to 18,673 and 12,099 to 13,587, respectively between 2017 and 2022. Even the crimes of K&A for the purpose of begging, and the K&A for the purpose of causing grievous hurt, confinement, and stealing from other person have shown an increasing trend.
It is noteworthy that missing children, deemed as kidnapped, alone constitute to about 44% of the K&A related crimes which have been committed against children. 19 of the 29 states of India have reported an increase in the number of children deemed as kidnapped in 2022 when compared to 2017. Among these, states like Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, and Rajasthan have reported a significant increase in such crimes viz, 1876 to 2807, 3413 to 5672, 3256 to 6197, 686 to 5560 and 638 to 1810, respectively. Further, even among the 10 states that have reported a decrease in the number of missing children deemed as kidnapped, the decrease has been minimal. The greatest such reduction in the number of missing children is from Bihar which has reported a reduction from 694 to 527 between 2017 and 2022. Therefore, when compared to the states that reported an increase in the number of missing children, the states with decreased numbers did not report a proportional decrease.
Crimes related to Child Labour, Child Marriage and Infanticide also show an increase
The analysis of NCRB data also shows that the number of crimes related to Child Labour, Infanticide, Child Marriage, and K&A of Minor Girls to compel them for Marriage increased during this period.
The data shows that while crimes related to child labour under CLA have increased substantially by 38% from 441 to 713, the crimes registered under PCMA have increased even more by 60% from 392 to 1001. Among these crimes, 11 states have reported an increase in the number of child labour cases, and 19 states have reported an increase in child marriage related cases.
Similarly, the data also shows a marginal increase in the Infanticide cases from 71 to 80 and K&A for the purpose of begging from 71 to 97. Along with these, as mentioned earlier, even the K&A of Minor Girls to compel them for Marriage has also shown a marginal increase of 10% from 12,099 to 13,587.
Therefore, in a nutshell, along with K&A related crimes of missing children, even the crimes of infanticide, child labour, making children beg, compelling them for marriage, etc. have shown an increase during this period.
Sexual Crimes have also witnessed a Steep increase
In the suo motu petition which the Supreme Court took by itself on sexual crimes committed against children, it has noted that sexual crimes against children have increased at an “alarming rate”. The analysis of the NCRB data confirms this observation by the apex court that sexual crimes against Children have increased steeply.
The NCRB categorizes these crime data by two laws, namely the IPC and POCSO Act, which define and prescribe punishment for the commission of different types of offences. Accordingly, there are 4 types of sexual crimes for which data has been recorded by NCRB.
Analysis of this data shows that 3 of these 4 types of crimes have witnessed a substantial increase from the year 2017 to 2022. Only the number of cases registered under ‘attempt to commit rape’ has decreased from 450 to 90, while the number of cases related to sexual assault and aggravated sexual assault, and rape, which includes penetrative sexual assault and aggravated penetrative sexual assault, increased from 1264 to 2673, 11,953 to 20,519 and 26,526 to 37,777, respectively. Thus, the data shows that these crimes related to sexual harassment, assault and rape have increased by 52%, 44% and 29%, respectively.
It is also important to note that 25 out of the 29 states reported an increase in the number of cases registered under penetrative sexual assault and aggravated penetrative sexual assault between 2017 and 2022. Among these, the states of Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, and Uttar Pradesh have reported a substantial increase from 183 to 1002, 1095 to 1809, 1233 to 2131, 964 to 3646, 2387 to 4182, 150 to 1720 and 1609 to 3448, respectively. Similarly, even in the case of crimes related to sexual assault and aggravated sexual assault, 22 out of the 29 states have reported an increase in the number of crimes.
Along with these sexual crimes, other associated crimes such as transmitting material involving children in the sexually explicit act, using the child for pornography, and procuring or inducing child for the sake of prostitution have also seen an increase from 7 to 150, 374 to 690 and 17 to 28, respectively. The only other associated crimes that have shown a decrease are the selling and buying of minors for prostitution which have come down from 81 to 9 and 4 to 3, respectively between 2017 and 2022.
The data clearly shows that the number of all sexual and other associated crimes committed against children has increased from 40,676 in 2017 to 61,929 in the year 2022, showing an increase of about 34% within a span of 6 years. Further, when compared to the overall number of crimes committed against children in the year 2022, the percentage share of sexual and their associated crimes stands at about 40%.
As noted earlier, the data also shows that 20 of the CACs have witnessed a reduction between 2017 and 2022. The notable among these 16 crimes are murder, murder with rape, K&A to murder, exposure and abandonment, procuration of minor girls, selling of minors for prostitution, etc. The crimes that showed significant reduction among these crimes are K&A to murder, procuration of minor girls, selling of minors for prostitution, and causing grievous hurt, which has shown the decrease from 144 to 27, 3382 to 1827, 81 to 9, and 924 to 458, respectively.
India Needs More Protective Measures
The NCRB data shows that the major crimes that have shown an increase in number are related to Kidnapping and Abduction for various purposes and Sexual offences. Along with these, crimes related to child labour, child marriage, trafficking, and even infanticide have also shown an increase in number. Further, even among the crimes that have shown a reduction in number, the reduction has been marginal except for a few. For example, the crimes of foeticide, kidnapping for ransom, offences by caretakers of juveniles, exposure and abandonment have only decreased from 114 to 100, 87 to 82, 273 to 239, and 857 to 792, respectively during 2017 and 2022. The trends show an alarming situation with most states reporting an increase in major crimes against children.
The World Health Organization (WHO) notes that experiencing violence in the childhood impacts lifelong health and well-being of children. The POCSO Act of India sets out one of its objectives as “it is imperative that the law operates in a manner that the best interest and well-being of the child are regarded as being of paramount importance at every stage, to ensure the healthy physical, emotional, intellectual and social development of the child”
To meet these objectives, together with objectives set out in other national and international laws, India needs to more measures to ensure the protection and well-being of children in every way.
While it can be argued that greater awareness may be leading to increased registration of cases, the data related to the disposal of these cases by police & courts will provide a better picture of the status of these crimes.
