Maharashtra reports 61 crimes against children every day, one every 23 minutes

As per the newly released National Crime Records Bureau NCRB report Crime in India 2023 Maharashtra has been witnessing a rise in the number of crimes against children Child rights organisation Child Rights and You ndash CRY which analysed the NCRB data says that the rate of crime against children in the financial capital appears to have increased over the past few yearsCrimes against children in MaharashtraEarlier in 2023 as per the analyses there were 22390 cases of crimes against children recorded in the state This means that on average over 61 crimes occurred each day more than 25 crimes each hour and roughly one crime every 23 minutesAccording to the data the rate of crimes against children the Rate of crime is populationadjusted ndash it gives the number of crimes for every 1 lakh population of children in the state is 620Maharashtra still stands at the 10th position in terms of the rate of crimes against children standing behind states and UTs such as Andaman and Nicobar Islands 1434 Delhi 1403 Chandigarh 907 Assam 842 Madhya Pradesh 779 Haryana 702 Sikkim 675 DampN Haveli and Daman amp Diu 640 and Kerala 628Crimes against children in Maharashtra 20212023While the total number of crimes against children in Maharashtra has shown a consistent upward trend rising from 17261 cases in 2021 to 22390 cases in 2023 this represented an overall increase of about 297 per cent over three yearsFurthermore between the years 2021 and 2022 there was a sharp increase of about 2028 per cent Although the rate of increase slowed to around 78437 between 2022 and 2023 the upward trend continuedKreeanne Rabadi Regional Director CRY West asserted that ldquoWhile it is commendable to see that cases of crimes against children are getting reported each case represents a failure to protect our most vulnerable citizens We need to prioritise child protection with stronger prevention faster response and unwavering accountabilityrdquoCrimes concentrated in urban districtsOut of the total 49 districts the majority of crimes were recorded in Mumbai Commr with 3110 cases 138937 followed by Thane Commr with 1638 cases 73237 and Pune Commr with 1234 cases 55137 The top five districts together accounted for 351837 of crimes against children in the state with a total of 7876 recorded cases Maharashtra records the highest number of kidnapping and abduction casesKidnapping and abduction accounted for 5472 per cent of all childrelated crimes in Maharashtra with 12252 cases recorded in 2023 Mumbai Thane and Pune Commissionerates together contributed nearly 30 per cent of all such casesKidnapping and abduction of children Of the total 49 districts the majority of crimes were recorded in Mumbai Commr with 1777 cases 1450 per cent followed by Thane Commr with 1119 cases 91337 and Pune Commr with 764 cases 624 per cent The top five districts together accounted for 394437 of crimes against children in the state with a total of 4832 recorded casesPOCSO cases Girls constitute 98 per cent of victimsCrimes under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences POCSO Act made up 3858 per cent of all crimes against children 8639 cases in total Of these 8519 victims were girls 981637 underscoring the disproportionate gender impact of sexual offences in the stateProtection of Children from Sexual Offences Act POCSOOf the total cases registered under the POCSO Act the majority were recorded in Mumbai Commr with 1157 cases 1339 per cent followed by Thane Commr with 458 cases 530 per cent and Pune Commr with 432 cases 50037 The top five districts together accounted for 321937 of all POCSOrelated crimes against children in the state with a total of 2781 recorded casesGender breakup of POCSO cases in MaharashtraOverall Maharashtra reported 8639 such cases in 2023 including 8519 involving girls 981637 and 120 involving boys 139 37 indicating that girls constitute the overwhelming majority of POCSO victims in the state