As the rape and murder case of a six-year-old in Vandiperiyar in Kerala’s Idukki has sent an uproar in the society, police data show that in the first five months of 2021, 627 cases of child rape were registered in the state, a media report said. The figures are highest in terms of the average number of cases reported per month for the last five years, from 2016 to 2020. 

In this year, Kerala has reported 1,639 cognizable cases of crimes against children till May. The figure includes 15 murder cases, 89 cases of kidnapping and abduction, six exposure and abandonment cases, and five cases under the prohibition of the child marriage act, a report by The Times of India said. There were 897 cases registered in Kerala that mentioned other crimes against children.

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However, no cases were registered under charges for foeticide, abetment of suicide, procuration of minor girls, and buying or selling for girls for prostitution till May, the report said. 

The report revealed that the highest numbers of child rape cases in Kerala were reported in 2019 at 1,313. In the year 2016, the number was 958 and in 2020, it dipped to 1,143. 

Last year during the lockdown, websites that offer child sex abusive material (CSAM), which used to have 600 hits per hour on any day, had 1,300-1,400 hits per hour, the CCSE (counter child sexual exploitation) unit of the state police monitored, reported TOI.

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The supervisor of the CCSE unit, ADGP Manoj Abraham said, “There was an alarming increase in the number of those accessing child pornographic material on the web, which in all probability would also had an impact on the increased sexual abuse of children.”