There might be debates for whether the increased reporting of cases is skewing the
data but as it stands, there has been a worrying 24% increase in crimes against children in the country reported in 2011 at 33,098 cases as against 26,694 cases reported in 2010. This is in contrast to the 7% increase (228,650 cases) in crimes against women in the country during 2011 and a 7% decline (6.52 million cases) in the overall crime rate in the country. The increase in crime against children was dominated by violence in Uttar Pradesh. The state witnessed nearly a 100% increase in crime against children from 8.7% of all crimes against children in 2010 to over 16% in 2011. Madhya Pradesh comes in at a close second, accounting for 13% of the total crimes against children in 2011 (down from 18% in 2010) and Delhi has the third highest rate, accounting for 12% of the total numbers in 2011 as against the 13.6% in 2010. Kidnapping & abduction accounted for about 46% of the crimes against children in 2011 with 15,282 cases reported during the year. Almost 22% were cases of rapes against minors with 7,112 cases being reported during 2011. There were 1,514 cases of murders reported during 2011. The graph below shows the crimes against children during 2011:
Procuration Of Minor Girls includes inducement to force or seduce to illicit sexual relationships
Worst Offenders Uttar Pradesh accounted for about 24% of all the cases of kidnapping and abduction in the country with over 3,700 cases being reported in the state. Delhi came in second with more than 3,500 cases being reported, which account for about 23% of the total number of cases. Uttar Pradesh also had the highest number of murders reported during 2011, which accounted for almost 30% of the national total. Madhya Pradesh recorded 1,262 cases of rapes against minors, the highest in the country. Uttar Pradesh had the second highest number with 1,088 cases being reported. There was a 27% increase in procuration (inducement to force or seduce to illicit sexual relationships) of minor girls, and West Bengal reported the highest number of cases (298) accounting for almost 35% of the all-India total. West Bengal also accounted for about 77% of the total 113 cases of selling of girls for prostitution. After six years of the law being passed where marriages of girls below 18 years and boys below 21 years were banned, child marriages, it seems, are still happening across the country. As many as 113 cases under Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2006 were reported in the country in 2011 out of which the highest were in West Bengal (25) followed by Maharashtra (19), Andhra Pradesh (15), Gujarat (13) and Karnataka (12). The number of foeticide cases increased by almost 19 per cent with the highest number being reported in Madhya Pradesh (38) followed by Chhattisgarh (21 cases) and Punjab (15 cases). The graph below shows the number of crimes reported by the top 5 states.