Ugly truth of crimes against children laid bare
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, November 17 2014:
There are a total of 362 children from 38 villages in Chandel, Ukhrul, Bishnupur and Churachandpur districts staying out of their respective villages.
The total number of children include 187 girls.
While 353 of them are out of their villages for studies, nine of them are out for earning.
Seventy nine of them are outside the State and 283 are within the State, according to a 2014 consolidated child tracking report of the Manipur Alliance for Child Rights.
The survey covered nine villages in Bishnupur district, two villages in Ukhrul district, 16 villages of Chandel district and 11 villages of Churachandpur district.
195 of them are presently staying with their parents, 65 of them are in boarding, 37 of them in house rent, 54 children are staying with their guardians, 9 of them are in children homes while the present staying condition of 2 of the children are not mentioned.
In the nine villages covered in Bishnupur district, the survey finds that only two children, a boy and a girl are outside their village while three boys are out of their village in respect of Ukhrul district.
In the 16 villages covered in the survey in Chandel district, 220 children including 106 girls, are out of their village for study.
64 of them are staying outside the State while the rest are within the State.
In the 11 villages of Churachandpur, 131 children including 77 girls are found out of their village.
Six of them are outside the State while 125 are within the State.
During a press meet today at Manipur Press Club, the MACR also released its consolidated statistics of various crimes against children in the State during the period beginning from September 2012 to November 11, 2014 .
According to the MACR statistics, sexual assault has been committed on 42 children while there have been 86 cases of child trafficking.
69 trafficked victims have been rescued and 11 are still untraceable.
Four reported child soldiers were returned/released and there are two children suspected to be recruited as child soldiers.
The statistics also indicated that there were 5 blast injured victims, two cases of attempt to kidnap/murder, five cases of molestation, 31 cases of physical assault, one case of live infant abandonment, one case of defamation and one case of gun attack.
The figure also showed that there are four children murdered in various cases, five murders after sexual assault, one death in communal clash, six lifeless newly born infant recovered, ten suicide and one bomb blast victim.
Ironically, there is no confirmed report of rescued survivors rehabilitation.
Although the culprits involved in such crimes were arrested, most of them were released on bail.
No charge-sheet has been filed in time and charge-sheets are not filed in many of the cases.
During the period, two culprits �a police commando driver and an actor, involved in the reported rape of a student have been convicted.
There is also no confirmed report on culprits absconding.
The total number of children affected by different child rights violation reported so far is 196 excluding five children murdered after sexual assault, according to the MACR statistics.
Speaking at the press meet, convener of MACR, Keisham Pradipkumar highlighting the urgency of child tracking portal urged the authority concerned to launch the same without any further delay in order to ensure protection of children.
Deploring the meagre budgetary allocation for child welfare programme in the State, MACR consultant Dr B Deven said no child welfare programme can be implemented efficiently due to meagre budget.
He urged all concerned to increase the budget in the child welfare sector so that their rights are protected.
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