Shocking! Four children are raped every day in Maharashtra

At a time when the government wants to have a foolproof system to ensure the safety of children the numbers are painting a dismal picture The national crime report for the year 2013 released by the National Crime Records Bureau NCRB has shown that four children were raped in Maharashtra every day Besides this there has also been an increase in crimes being recorded against children in the stateMaharashtra has the countryrsquos highest percentage 219 of pending cases of crimes against children as a ratio of total pending criminal cases in the state PicThinkstockAccording to the NCRB report a total of 1546 rape cases of minors were registered in 2013 ndash an average of four per day There were 191 child murders and there has also been an increase in the number of children kidnapped in the state in 2013 Whatrsquos worse these cases are not being cleared quickly leading to the state recording the second highest number of cases pending under trialldquoCases of kidnapping have increased because after a recent Supreme Court order we have started treating cases of missing children also under kidnapping until proved otherwise In fact thanks to awareness in the society more and more cases are being reported nowrdquo said K L Bishnoi additional director general of police law amp orderHe added that the state has taken a conscious decision over the past couple of years to ensure that all cases of crime against children and women should first be registered and then inquiry should be conductedldquoWe are very happy that there have been no cases of police burking any case in this reportrdquo added BishnoiHowever the state hasnrsquot been very prompt in providing justice to those who mustered the courage to go to the cops According to the report at the beginning of 2013 Maharashtra had a total of 30666 cases under trial including those from the previous yearSadly by the end of the year 29126 cases were still pending in various courts In 2012 the figure of total cases stood at 19083 and pending cases by the end of that year were 18007The percentage of pending cases of crime against children as a comparison with the total pending criminal cases is the highest as compared to any other state at 219 per cent ldquoCrime is directly related to the population of the state and the two states with the highest number of cases registered and pending are highly populated states This canrsquot be the right point of comparisonNeither can we control the court proceedings But we are ensuring that all cases are registeredrdquo added Bishnoi He also said the only solution would be setting up more fast track courts for hearing cases of crime against childrenExperts called for better implementation of the law Nishit Kumar head of communications and strategic initiatives of the NGO Childline India Foundation said ldquoThe children sector is among the most neglected in our country Whilst India signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child UNCRC in 1992 we are a far cry from protecting our childrenTake the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences POCSO Act which was enacted in November 2012 But we neither have child friendly police stations nor is our POCSO court childfriendly mdash which by the way is part of the rules of the very Act This shows how miserably it is being implementedrdquoIn order to bring down the number of pending cases Bishnoi added that changes would be implemented soon ldquoWe will demand for the state to set up more fasttrack courts to ensure speedy trials and also the appoint more judicial officersrdquo he said