Statistics show that the number of POCSO cases in the state has increased steadily since 2016. In 2016, the police registered a total of 2,122 POCSO cases in the state. In 2017, the state witnessed a total of 2,697 POCSO cases. In 2018, the total number of cases touched 3,179.
Malappuram district tops the list of districts in the total number of POCSO cases in the state. According to the data by the Kerala Police, 289 child abuse cases were registered until July 2019. Thiruvananthapuram stands second with 238 cases and Ernakulam is in third place with 203 cases.
In 2017, as many as 219 POCSO cases were reported from the Malappuram. In 2018, the numbers went up to 410. If the offence rate continues at the current pace, the total number of cases in the district will touch a record figure, says Abdussalam K P, who was appointed to monitor the child labour and child abuses in the district by the District Court, Manjeri. He says the recent POCSO cases from the district were heart-wrenching and the details about these cases should be made public to create awareness among people.
In a case, a 27-year-old youth tried to rape a two-and-a-half-year-old child in Manjeri. The incident occurred at night when the child was sleeping with her mother at their residence. Later, the family members of the child handed him over to the police. In another case, three people were arrested by the police for subjecting a 14-year-old boy to unnatural sex. The culprits had given the boy ganja before molesting him. Lack of awareness about POCSO Act among people is one of the reasons behind the increasing number of cases in the state, Abdussalam said.
The Union Government has amended the POCSO Act by including the death penalty for sexual assault on children. The law is now capable of addressing the need for strict measures against the rising trend of child sex abuse. If a person is charged under the POCSO Act, he will not get bail for the first three months. Then, he will have to face at least 15 years or more imprisonment as per the gravity of the case, he said.
