Innocence lost: 3,000 sexual assault cases against kids filed last year

New Delhi: Sexual abuse of children is rampant in the capital. Last year, Delhi Police registered 3,052 complaints of sexual assault against children, but bringing the paedophiles to book isn't easy. While many of the offenders are juveniles who get away with minor punishment, others escape due to lack of clinching evidence.
Police say that many offenders get away because many children are unable to distinguish between an affectionate hug and an embrace loaded with sexual intent or are too shy to complain.Women police officers say that children keep their trauma to themselves knowing that they have to return to the same environment. "The victims need extensive counselling to get out of the trauma," said one officer.
Data compiled by an NGO and Delhi Police last year revealed that over 90% of minor rape victims were abducted from near their house by neighbours or their tenants. Over 85% rapes took place in houses or in slum clusters where the accused were known to the victim, and 38.89% were found to involve friends, of whom 25.31% were in live-in-relationships and had refused to marry the victims.
The study also showed that 14.07 of the accused were family members.
The National Crime Records Bureau data for 2014 showed that on average, only 60.83% of sexual cases were reported by the economically disadvantaged groups. It recorded that 71 rape victims in 2014 were aged below six, while 806 were in the age group of 18-30.
A study conducted in 2015 by the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights pointed out that 53.22% faced one or more forms of sexual abuse. Most victims were street children, children at work or in institutional care. Almost 90% of them did not report the abuse to anyone.
Police officers say socio-economic inequalities have led to an increase in the number of cases of sexual assault against children, compounded by loosening social structures and family control and adverse sex ratios.
The cops dealing with child sexual abuse cases rued the non-cooperation of parents and their lack of concern at their children's safety.