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Hyd denizens keeping child sexual abuse under wraps
The child sexual abuse cases in the city remain under-reported even though the police conduct regular awareness programmes. According to the officials, during the last one and half year (from May 2016) cases which were related to Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (POCSO) were only 2,900. Amongst these only 9 cases were of boys and the remaining were girl victims.
Hyderabad: The child sexual abuse cases in the city remain under-reported even though the police conduct regular awareness programmes. According to the officials, during the last one and half year (from May 2016) cases which were related to Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (POCSO) were only 2,900. Amongst these only 9 cases were of boys and the remaining were girl victims.
However, police officials feel that the cases remain under-reported even when the victim is a boy as the incident of crime could be higher vis-a-vis male child. “It is not that people living in slums do not report the incident because of lack of awareness, even in the case of economically well-off family, but due to fear of bad name. In many cases, the crime is committed by the person who is known to the child hence, it the reason there is lot of pressure not to reveal their names,” said Swati Lakra, City Additional Commissioner (Crimes & SIT).
To ensure that cases of child sexual abuse are brought to the notice of authorities, the police officials are now working in close coordination with school authorities, Mission for Elimination of Poverty in Municipal Areas (MEPMA) and Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC).
In this regard, the police will conduct separate workshops with representatives of about 60 government schools and 180 officials of other departments by the end of this month. “As part of our outreach programme we shall be taking help of the field officials of these departments. In phased manner we shall continue the workshops,” added the official.
It may be mentioned here that a 85-year-old retired railway employee was arrested on November 22 on charges of sexually harassing children. Parents and children revealed the matter of sexual assault to ‘SHE Teams’ at an awareness programme in a government school in Kapra. The police officials were informed that about six students were sexually harassed by the octogenarian and the police immediately swung into action and lodged a complaint in the local police station, which was followed by the octogenarian’s arrest.
