NEW DELHI: Is Kerala the most incestuous society in the whole of South India? Yes, it seems if one were to go by the statistics which the Home Ministry has in its hands.
Kerala in the last 10 years (2001-11) has registered 132 incest rape cases, highest in South India and fifth in the country.
Worse, Kerala has the dubious record of being the only state where the incest rape cases have steadily increased over the years in comparison to other states.
The number of cases was highest in 2006, when 28 women were molested by family members in Kerala.
The age of the victims, as per the data available with the National Human Rights Commission, varies from 11 years to 60.
Next to K e r a l a among the southern states is T a m i l Nadu.
The state has 118 cases of incest rape registered in the last 10 years.
But in the case of TN, the number has been steadily decreasing with no cases being reported in the last two years.
Andhra Pradesh is third with 82 cases.
Here also the numbers have been coming down drastically over the years, with only two cases being registered in the l a s t thr e e years.
Karnataka, with the least number of cases recorded in South India, has only 49 cases registered in the last 10 years.
“That Kerala has the highest number of incest rape cases even more than states like UP and Bihar, which normally have high rape cases was something unexpected,” said an official with the NHRC.
“There is no palpable reason from the criminal case point of view to point out why one state has more incest rape cases than others.
It could be due to the fact that the state has a better system of recording the crime due to highest standards of social indicators,” said the official.