BHOPAL: The police will be cracking down on paedophiles from Sunday with a special focus on
slum areas
from where most of the
child abuse
cases have been reported.
Police said 60 per cent of child abuse cases have been reported from slum areas. Each police station will conduct a special drive in the slum areas falling under its jurisdiction.
DIG (urban) Raman Singh Sikarwar said such cases tend to increase in summers as children stay home during school holidays.
“In slum areas, people go out to make their ends meet leaving behind their children, who become an easy prey to anti-social elements. The psychopaths lure children by offering them gifts and abuse them,” he said.
“Police teams will tour the slum areas across the city to nab such predators and will also spread awareness among the parents on how to protect their children. There are around 60-70 slums in Bhopal where such cases are rampant,” said Sikarwar.
A child rights activist said children from slum areas were most vulnerable to sexual abuse due to the lack of security and the surroundings in which they live.
Child rights activist Prashant Dubey said, “Psychotropic substances are easily available in slum areas and most of the times the criminals are high on drugs. Many a times, people do not report such cases and the offenders keep repeating the act. Even the boys are not spared who themselves could become abusers later, if proper counselling is not provided to them.”
Police records show every third day a child abuse case is reported from slum areas and in most cases the crime is committed by either a neighbour or an acquaintance.
Similarly, children were most often assaulted when they were alone either at home or in the locality. Recently, an auto driver raped a 10-year-old girl and offered her money to keep her mouth shut.
The police will conduct the drive in slum areas of Misrod, Bagsevania, Avadhpuri, Jahangirabad, Barkheda Pathani, Anna Nagar and other localities.
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