HYDERABAD: Child abuse cases in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh are on alarming rise with 48 percent increase every year. At the same time, the crime rate by juveniles has also went up in the recent years, according to the State Commission for Protection of Child Rights for AP and TS. Despite these facts, this constitutional body hardly receives any complaints from victims or their parents.
The commission found that more than 1,000 cases of both sexual, physical assault against children and other violations of child rights from both the states every month. But majority of them are going unnoticed. Blame it on lack of awareness or the absence of strict Acts, more than 90 percent of such cases are not being reported either to the commission or to the police.
Currently there are around 100 child abuse complaints pending with the commission, out of which more than half of them are taken as suo moto cases. Sexual violence cases against minors in both AP and Telangana are one of the highest in the country, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). But only three such cases are reported to the commission every month.
Achyuta Rao, a member of the State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, AP and TS, said several of these cases are being settled by the police. To bring them into the light, the commission started taking suo moto cases based on news reports, he said.
The commission has also expressed concern over rapidly increasing number of child labourers in Hyderabad. Recent rescue operations by the city police may have freed more than 500 children from factories, but there are thousands of children still stuck in domestic labour. A recent study by the commission discovered that even after the raids, highest number of child labourers are still working as house maids in apartments, especially in gated communities. Rao said often the commission’s attempts to rescue child labourers from apartments and gated communities face hurdles from politicians and influential businessmen who support the child labour mafia.