NCRB data: Lockdown brought sexual assault on minors to record low in Ludhiana

As per NCRB data, only one case of sexual assault on a minor was registered in Ludhiana; the tally is in stark contrast to 2019, when 62 cases of rape and 11 cases of attempt to rape were registered, of which seven victims were minors

History will remember the year 2020 as the year when the world came to a grinding stop, roads and streets were deserted, migrant labourers walked thousands of miles to reach home, hospitals were overflowing with patients, people lost their jobs and many toppled into a financial black hole.

As per NCRB data one case of sexual assault, two cases of sodomy, and five cases of attempted rape on minors were reported in Ludhiana in 2020. (Representative Image/HT File)

However, even this cloud had a silver lining, as the incidence of sexual assaults on minors nosedived to an all-time low as let off the obligation of turning up for work, parents were with their wards at all time, keeping sexual predators at a bay. As per National Crime Record Bureau data one case of sexual assault, two cases of sodomy, and five cases of attempted rape on minors were reported in Ludhiana in 2020.

The tally is in stark contrast to 2019, when 62 cases of rape and 11 cases of attempt to rape were registered, of which seven victims were minors.

Most cases were reported in areas with a significant migrant population: the labour quarters near industrial areas, where around 70 families inhabit one building. In most cases, both parents of the victims were at work when the sexual assaults took place and in most cases, the victim knew the predator.

As per NCRB data, in 2020, 117 cases of abduction were reported in Ludhiana , of which 108 minor girls were abducted on the pretext of marriage, while nine minors were kidnapped for other reasons. (HT Photo)

117 minors abducted

In 2020, 117 cases of abduction were reported in Ludhiana, of which 108 minor girls were abducted on the pretext of marriage, while nine minors were kidnapped for other reasons.

The kidnapping of the two-and-a-half year-old son of a city-based hotelier had grabbed headlines in 2020. The case had been solved within 24 hours with the arrest of the driver and his accomplices who had demanded a ransom of ₹4 crore.

One case of human trafficking was also reported. Children brought from other states to work in factories and beg had been rescued.

Four minors murdered

Four minors, three boys and one girl, were found murdered in 2020. Apart from this, eight cases were filed under the Justice Juvenile Act, where parents and caretakers were booked for ill-treating children.

In a recent horrifying case, the Tibba police had arrested a labourer for beating and branding his seven-year-old stepson with a hot knife. Four cases each of child labour and child marriage were also reported in 2020.