NEW DELHI: Cognizable crimes under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and those under the Special and Local Laws (SLL) recorded a marginal increase of 2.6 per cent in 2016 compared to 2015 but offences against children registered a sharp jump during the period, according to data from the National Crime Records Bureau.
Crimes against children were on an upward trend over the past three years, with a significant rise of 13.6 per cent in 2016 (1,06,958 cases) over 2015 (94,172 cases). Kidnapping and abduction of children accounted for 52.3 per cent of the cases, followed by those reported under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) with 34.4 per cent cases. Cases reported under “Juveniles in Conflict with Law” also rose by 7.2 per cent (35,849 cases) in contrast to 33,433 cases in 2015.
Cases of crimes against women also reported an increase of 2.9 per cent in 2016 over 2015. A majority of the cases in the category were reported under ‘Cruelty by Husband or His Relatives’ (32.6%) followed by ‘Assault on Women with Intent to Outrage her Modesty’ (25.0%), ‘Kidnaping & Abduction of Women’ (19.0%) and ‘Rape’ (11.5%).