The report "904 children abducted in Bihar since 2001" may look grim, but the overall facts tell a different story about Bihar regarding the crimes against children vis-à-vis other Indian states, at least in the year 2005.

Let us examine the National Crime Record Bureau' Crimes in India -2005 report, as an example. A total number of 14,975 cases of crime against children were committed in 2005 compared to 14,423 cases in 2004 (an increase of 3.8%) and 11,633 cases in 2003. Out of this, Bihar records only 115 incidents (17th position out of 28 states and 7 union territories) of crimes against children with a percentage contribution of 0.8% only to All-India total of 100% compared to 3721 case in Madhya Pradesh (24.8% and 1st rank), 2305 cases in Maharashtra (15.4& and 2nd rank) and 1801 case in Uttar Pradesh (12% and 3rd rank. The overall crime rate against children has marginally increased from 1.3% in 2004 to 1.4% in 2005.

Crimes against children have been steadily rising over the last few years-from 832 cases registered in 2000 to 2,281 in 2004. From 2003 to 2004 alone, crimes against children rose by 3.63% though Bihar has shown continuous decline in overall crimes against children, except kidnapping.

Out of the 35 notorious cities covered the crime chart, Patna, the capital of Bihar recorded only 4 cases off crime against children with a low percentage of 0.1% compared to Indore, which recorded the highest incidents of 448 with a whopping percentage of 14.6% and ranked second after Delhi that leads the graph with 852 case and 27.7% of the total crimes. Even the high-tech city, Pune recorded 314 cases in 2005. Under the major cities (out of the 35), even Jharkhand has a better record with only two cities e.g. Dhanbad and Jamshedpur in the list with a total of 5 cases. However, Delhi tops the chart.

Among the crimes, rape tops the list with a total 4026 cases were reported in the country in 2005 as compared to 3542 in 2004 accounting for an increase of 13.7%. During 2005, Madhya Pradesh has recorded the highest number of rape cases i.e. 780 followed by Maharashtra with 634 cases of child rape. In fact, the number of rapes of children in the age group of 10-18 has almost doubled from 2000 to 2004.

Kidnapping and abduction comes next on the crime chart with a total of 3518 cases of criminal acts against children were reported in 2005 as compared to 3196 cases in the preceding year, which is an increase of 10.1%. In kidnapping and abduction, Uttar Pradesh, not Bihar, leads the crime graph with 749 cases, which is 21.3% at the national level.

Homicide is another criminal act meted out against children with a total of 1327 cases were reported in country against 1304 in 2004 with an increase of 1.8% in 2005. Uttar Pradesh leads in child homicide with 390 cases (29.4% of the total cases).

However, the cases of child marriage showed a decline of 31.2% with 93 incidents in 2005 as compared to 122 in 2004. The evil of child marriages were reported from Gujarat (25 cases), Maharashtra (22 cases) and Madhya Pradesh (18 cases), which accounted for 20.5%, 18% and 14.8% respectively. Here also, Bihar has no record.

A total of 28 cases of buying of girls and 50 cases of selling of girls for prostitution were reported in the country during 2005 against 21 and 19 such cases in the preceding year. While Delhi and Andhra Pradesh with 32.1% each along with 21.4% of Maharashtra accounted for 85.6% of total cases of buying of girls, West Bengal accounted for 88% of the total selling of girls. In addition, there were 145 incidents of procuration of minor girls did take place in 2005, which shows a decrease of 29.3% compared to 2004 with 205 such cases.

In 2005, a total of 108 cases of infanticide were reported in country in 2005, which is also a marginal increase from 102 cases in 2004 and 203 cases in 2003.

The state wise crime graph shows a rather surprising trend, as Madhya Pradesh is leading with 3721 cases of crime against children followed by Maharashtra (2305 cases), Uttar Pradesh (1801 cases) and Delhi (1026 cases) respectively.

In spite of forceful legal provisions, such Section IPC (for rape), Section 372 & 373 IPC (selling and buying girls for prostitution), Section 315 & 316 IOC (crime against a foetus) apart from various IPCs (Section 360-369) for different forms of kidnapping and Section 302 IPC for homicide, the prosecution has been inadequate. For example, out of the 19,728 persons arrested for various crimes against children, the police could manage to provide charge-sheet against 16,669 persons only and out of the these charge-sheeted persons, only 4475 could be convicted.

The good news is that Mizoram, Nagaland and Lakshadweep have no record of crime against children. When will we see Bihar in this category? In all our hope against hope, we can expect a better Bihar, probably in near future where children are safe and secure.

 

The continuous rise in crimes against children is an abject failure of the law enforcement agencies, government and civil society who have not been able to play their respective roles in an efficient manner. In addition, the growing rate of incidents also indicate young children have a high exposure to criminal elements in the society, not only in Metros but also cities like Indore and Pune. Above all, the sensitisation of the police force besides different government measures to protect children from violence have so far proved ineffective. A complete failure on the part of criminal justice system in delivering the desired results in punishing the culprits is perhaps the most important reason that a large number of criminals are at large.

A criminal-police-politician nexus is often cited as the primary reason, at least in the case of Bihar, aided and abetted with the teeming unemployed youths taking to anti-social activities with a view to become rich overnight. TV channels, including soap operas laden with sophisticated life style and luxurious houses where big business tycoons plan strategies to outwit the rivals by hook or by crook to stay at the top, are playing critical role in swaying the young minds.

However, the reporting of high incidence of crime against children is a sign of the proactive role of police. It can be hoped that the police personnel across the country would study these data and analyse the causes and take steps to curb such cases of violence against children. As a society, our efforts to prevent crimes committed against children have not kept pace with the increasing vulnerability of our children.

Children, the most precious commodity, are most vulnerable in our society. Hence, every needs protection right from his or her own home to school to market place because the predator could be anyone -close relatives, teachers, elder colleagues in school, strangers, among others. Children need protection from physical harm, protection from exploitation and gender-biased violence both inside and outside home

A recent home ministry approved draft has been circulated among states, which would, after a due process, become laws to protect Indian children from various types of abuses. There is an urgent need for the draft on Offences Against Children Act 2006 to be made comprehensive. In addition, Child Protection Units (CPUs) and Children Protection Courts (CPCs), which would deliver these new laws effectively and speedily, should be establish without delay. "The children of India need their rights and their legal protection from Parliament if they are to function as responsible future citizens", writes Pinki Virani.

The rising trend in crimes against children is disturbing, not only for Bihar, but also for whole of India, which needs urgent attention because India has the largest population (340 million or 340419115 to be exact) of children in the age group of 0-14 in the world exceeding those of China, which has 320 million (320866959 to be exact) children by about 19.5 million i.e. 5.75% (Census of India, 2001). Cyber crime is the latest in the list of scores of heinous abuses against children. Studies have shown that about 60 per cent of all websites are sexual in content. About 20% of them solicited their visitors, 13% went voluntarily and the rest were pictorially lured. An estimated 100,000 pornographic websites generate revenues in the region of US$1 billion annually. The increasing popularity of chat rooms and the vulnerability of personal data to criminal access makes children the easiest targets for a range of culpable crimes.

With the development in economy and IT, crime has also been on the rise, especially those that victimise innocent children. Each year, crime against children in India are increasing and becoming more heinous. Due to factors like age and physical as well as mental strength, children are the easiest prey to the violent crimes and vulnerable to all possible abuses the modern world has been witnessed to. Sometimes, even minors of three to four years old are not spared. In fact, the crime against children is a pervasive phenomenon that knows no political, social, cultural and economic boundaries except human lust, anger and evil business. Nature of crimes against children includes abduction, homicide, rape, assault, and physical and sexual abuse, kidnapping, buying and selling for prostitution, early marriages, infanticide and foeticide etc.