Editor, Goemkarponn
AEIRAL VIEW
What is even worse is that these are just reported cases as we know less than 10% seek help from law enforcement. Because many women or families of minors who experience sexual violence rarely report or come forward about their incidences, exact rape numbers are challenging to report.
So the actual figures may be much more than what the NCRB has reported.
Of course, this column or editorial in no way tries to blame the DGP or the CM for the gruesome crimes against minors but the accountability has to be fixed. Goa being the smallest State in the country cannot carry the load of the tag of being the highest in rapes of minors.
It is time for the Chief Minister to sit down with the DGP and other police officers and find a solution to this issue. The DGP has to be asked to concentrate more on policing rather than spending time on “X” replying to criticism on social media platforms.
SURAJ NANDREKAR
Editor, Goemkarponn
Contrary to the claims of State Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant and the Director General of Police Jaspal Singh that Goa has the highest Crime detection of rate in the country, the state has also earned a dubious distinction of having the highest rate of minor rape cases reported in the country in 2022.
According to the statistics released by National Crime Records Bureau(NCRB) yesterday, Goa’s rate of minor rapes is 7.1, which is the highest in the country. Goa recorded 75 rape cases in 2022 of which 57 victims were minor girls below 18 years of age.
What is alarming is rapes on minor girls constitute 76 per cent of total rapes reported in Goa in 2022. Goa reported a total of 73 rape cases of which the total victims were 75. Of the 57 minor victims of rape cases registered under Section 376 of IPC in Goa, 2 are below 6 years of age, 12 between 6 to 12 years, 26 between 12 to 16 years and 17 between 16 to 18 years of age.
Interestingly in 93.2 % of the 75 rape cases the accused was known to the victim. 68 of the 75 rape victims said the offender was known to them, in fact, 9 of the accused were family members.
There were 90 cases of assault on women with intent to outrage their modesty in 2022 in Goa.
What is even worse is that these are just reported cases as we know less than 10% seek help from law enforcement. Because many women or families of minors who experience sexual violence rarely report or come forward about their incidences, exact rape numbers are challenging to report.
So the actual figures may be much more than what the NCRB has reported.
Of course, this column or editorial in no way tries to blame the DGP or the CM for the gruesome crimes against minors but the accountability has to be fixed and measures need to be taken to check this. Goa being the smallest State in the country cannot carry the load of the tag of being the highest in rapes of minors.
It is time for the Chief Minister to sit down with the DGP and other police officers and find a solution to this issue. The DGP has to be asked to concentrate more on policing rather than spending time on “X” replying to criticism on social media platforms.
Another important factor here is that the majority of these rapes are on migrant minor girls by migrants themselves. Usually, the adult is known to the child and may be a family member, stepparent, or a person with authority.
National Crime Record Bureau Reports show more than 90 per cent of cases of rape are perpetrated by relations or known persons. NCRB Crime in India Statistics in 2018 show that 93.9% of the total rape cases were committed by persons known to the victim.
In 2017, in 93% of the total rape cases, the offenders were known to the victim while in 2016, 94.6% of the total cases were committed by relations including father, brother, son, grandfather or other known acquaintances.
The Chief Minister was right when he said that the majority of crimes in Goa are by migrants and he was heavily criticised for this statement. But the fact remains that migrants are involved in the crimes and we need to find a solution to these issues.
Being a small tourist state with the highest per capita income, thousands and thousands of migrants have made Goa their home as they have enough opportunities for work in the construction and industrial sector besides Goa does not produce much-skilled manpower on its own.
The migrant labourers usually come for work alone and they have no way to satisfy their sexual urges due to which they would often rape minor girls, being the easy target, residing in their neighbouring house or in their locality.
To control this issue, the State has to follow a preventive approach, preventive measures such as educating the minors about good touch and bad touch; encouraging confidence in minors to inform if any incident of sexual assault happens with them; creating awareness among people about rape on minors and the harshness of the punishment for such crimes so as to create deterrent effect among people; survey should be made as to in which areas, whether rural or urban, the crime of rape on minors is more prominent and to target the awareness programmes appropriately towards those areas; to avoid the minors wandering alone in the streets, especially at night and to always accompany the minor girls when they go out; the parents of the minors should always keep a check on the behaviour of their neighbours or the relatives towards their child and if they have any suspicion then they should talk directly to that person regarding it and should also warn their child and such other measures should be taken to prevent the crime of rape on minors.
