Among the 1972 victims of sexual assault in Kerala in 2018, 1156 are minors, below the age of 18.
The total number of crimes against women recorded in Kerala in 2018 is 10461, which is 496 less than the statistics in 2017 but 427 more than in 2016. The data, released by the National Crime Records Bureau, says that Kerala accords for 2.8 per cent of the total number of crimes against women in the country.
There have been 1945 incidents of rape reported in 2018 in Kerala, affecting 1972 victims. What is most shocking is that in 98.4 per cent of the cases, the assaulter has been known to the victim.
"I am not surprised at the data. The assaulter has been a relative in many cases of sexual abuse. But it should be an eye opener for us to take counter action. That the solutions we have been arriving at so far are not working," says advocate and activist J Sandhya.
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