There is a disturbing report of child sexual exploitation in Kerala. This shows that children in Kerala are not safe in schools and at home. Cases of sexual exploitation of children are increasing here. The report was recently released by the Kerala State Commission for Protection of Child Rights. The report said 21 per cent of cases involved children being victims of sexual abuse at home. In 4% of cases, children were victims in schools. An investigation into 40,663 cases registered under the POCSO Act found that 988 of them occurred in children’s homes.
The report said there were 725 cases of defendants harming children at home. This accounts for 15% of the total cases. There were 935 cases of sexual exploitation of children in public places. In 173 cases, children were victimized in schools. Of these, 139 occurred in vehicles, 146 occurred elsewhere, and 166 occurred in remote locations.
73 cases of child abuse in religious places
Not only that, there were 60 cases of children being abused in hotels, 72 cases at friends’ houses, and 73 cases at religious places. Hospitals reported 16 cases and child care facilities accounted for 8% of cases. In 791 cases, no information about the crime has been found. Last year, the state registered 4,00,663 cases under POCSO. Thiruvananthapuram district has recorded the highest number of cases. Pathanamthitta district has the lowest number of cases.
322 cases out of 3,000 registered in 2021
According to police data, out of 400,663 cases registered under the POCSO Act, the number of children was 4,00,701. This suggests that in many cases there was more than one victim. These figures highlight the need to educate children on POCSO and child-friendly procedures and provide self-defence training. The report said that 3,00,322 cases were registered in the state in 2021 and 4,00,583 cases were registered in 2022. In 2019, this number was 3,00,616, and in 2020, it was 3,0030.
