On Children’s day today, even as Pune celebrates children and all the innocence and joy they embody, a darker reality lurks just under surface — that now, more than ever, the city is not safe for kids. In the past ten months alone, the city has seen a sharp rise — 41 per cent — in incidents of child abuse, and according to the Pune police, in most cases, the survivors were on familiar terms with the culprits.

There has been a 41 per cent increase in incidents of child abuse over the past ten months alone. Cops and activists said that in most cases, the culprits were known to the victims. File pic for representation

What’s most worrying, however, is the number of cases in which the culprit was an educator or tutor, in whom both parents and children themselves place absolute trust. While there have been reports about child abuse in schools and school buses in the past, according to the Social Security Cell attached to the Pune Crime Branch, police have observed that in most cases since January, the culprits were tutors at private tuitions or hobby classes such as dance, karate, etc.

‘Law has more scope’
As per the city police’s data, there have been 178 recorded cases of child abuse in the past ten months (January – October), a sizeable increase from the 126 cases that were registered through 2013. With a wider scope in the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012, the police say that more cases of child sexual abuse are now being registered, forming a great portion of crimes against children.