KMS, New Delhi: As many as 1.28 lakh cases of crime against children were registered in 2020, according to the ‘Crime in India 2020’ report published by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).

Though the number of incidents reflects a 13.5% decline from over 1.48 lakh cases in 2019, the classification of the crimes under different heads reflects how a very large number of children became victims of heinous crimes.

Kidnapping and abduction cases accounted for 42.6% of all cases last year, followed by cases of sexual offences including child rape under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (Pocso) at 38.8%. Pocso cases accounted for 35.5% of the total in 2019.

The number of offences under Pocso, pertaining to penetrative sexual assault and aggravated prenetrative sexual assault, shows that of the total 28,065 cases in these categories, in 96% of cases the accused was a known person. Out of 26,934 cases involving a known person, the offender was a family member in 2,556 cases.

The age profile of the victims of sexual offences in 2020 shows that 640 were below six years, 2,540 between 6 to 12, as many as 11,029 between 12 to 16 and 14,118 between 16 to 18. These include both boys and girls.

The NCRB data shows that in 2019 there was an increase of 4.5% in the total number of cases of crimes against children in the previous year in which 1,41,764 cases were registered. In percentage terms, major crime heads during 2019 in case of children were were kidnapping & abduction (46.6%) and Pocso cases (35.3%) including child rape.