DNA: Mumbai: Tuesday, May
22, 2018.
The city, it
seems, is not as safe for children as you would wish it to be. After brouhaha
over series of incidents over cruelty on children across the country, there is
some bad news from the city too. There is a jump in the number of cases
registered under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) as
per information provided under RTI.
From 494
cases that were registered between April '16 to March '17, the figures have jumped
to 596 only in seven months of September '17 to March '18. The Mumbai police,
while providing information, stated that it was asked to compile the figures
only from September 2017 onwards and hence it could not provide information
from April '17 onwards. This when it had given information about the previous
year to the applicant.
The
information was provided to RTI applicant Chetan Kothari. Kothari had also
sought details on gang rape cases registered, cases of rape and kidnapping and
those missing. As per the information provided, in the 596 cases registered
between April '17 to March '18, the number of victims stood at 602. This was
more than 509 victims in April '16 to March '17 in which 499 people were
arrested. The number of people arrested during September '17 to March '18 was
not provided for this year.
"Its
good that cases are being reported, but rise in the number of victims is
worrisome. Now it is on police, hospitals, prosecution and judiciary to work
together and ensure that victim gets justice. Sooner people are convicted, the
number will fall. Some months ago we had a workshop with some judges and we
asked them to expedite the cases so that judgements are given soon,"
Santosh Shinde, member, Maharashtra State Child Rights Commission.
According to
figures provided, there were nine gang rape cases registered between April '17
to March '18. Cases of rape and kidnapping in the same period stood at 802 and
2,169. That of people gone missing stood at 11,864. Of these, the number of
women was higher at 6,246 while of men was 5,618.
Most women in
the age group of 16 to 25 went missing. The police, however, managed to trace a
number of them while some were found dead. Those who continued to be missing
were 816 men and 1,881 women.
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