From CK Nayak
New Delhi: With spurts in rape incidents in Meghalaya, the matrilineal state also has the highest number of child rape cases in the North East India next only to Tripura, according to a report of Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) released here on Monday.
Quoting latest reports of the National Crimes Bureau, the prominent human rights organization said that Meghalaya reported 452 child rape cases between 2001-2010 which is only five less than that of Tripura. But Tripura has a far bigger population with predominant Bengali population unlike Meghalaya.
After Tripura and Meghalaya, Assam, the most populous state in the region, reported 316 cases of child rape. Assam is followed by Mizoram (217 cases), Sikkim (113 cases), Manipur (98 cases), Arunachal Pradesh (93 cases) and Nagaland (38 cases), Suhas Chakma, Directror of the ACHR said in the report.
Among the mainland states, Madhya Pradesh recorded the highest number of child rape with 9,465 cases followed by Maharashtra (6,868 cases), Uttar Pradesh (5,949 cases), Andhra Pradesh (3,977 cases), Chhattisgarh (3,688 cases), Delhi (2,909 cases), all states with high density of population.
The report stated that sexual offences against children in India have reached an ‘epidemic’ proportion and a large number of them are being committed in the juvenile justice homes run and aided by the Government of India. The report has been submitted to the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, Ms Rashida Manjoo, who is conducting an official visit to India from Monday and meeting Chakma on Tuesday.
The 56-page ACHR report stated that a total of 48,338 child rape cases in India were recorded between 2001 and 2011, with an increase of 336 per cent of child rape cases from 2001 (2,113 cases) to 2011 (7,112 cases).
However, these are only the tip of the iceberg as the large majority of child rape cases are not reported to the police while children regularly become victims of other forms of sexual assault too, the report added.
