Odisha witnessed 8,240 incidents of crime against children in 2022, a 4.31 per cent rise from the previous year, according to the latest statistics released by the NCRB. According to NCRB’s ‘Crime in India in 2022’, Odisha registered 8,240 cases of crime against children in 2022 as against 7,899 such incidents in 2021.
In 2020 when the Covid pandemic gripped the nation, Odisha saw 6,330 such cases. The data revealed India registered 1,62,449 cases of crime against children in 2022, an 8.7 per cent rise over 2021 when the country saw 1,49,404 such cases. The year 2020 witnessed 1,28,531 cases of crime against children. Maximum cases of crime against children in 2022 were related to kidnapping and abduction under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012.
Odisha saw at least 2,423 cases filed under the POCSO Act, 2012 in 2022 as compared to 63,414 cases recorded nationally. Similarly, 5,606 incidents of kidnapping and abduction were registered in Odisha in 2022, while as many as 74,284 such cases were recorded nationally across the country