The analysis carried out by Child Rights and You, the Indian based non-governmental organization that works for the rights of children, based on the National Crime Records Bureau data released in 2018, has revealed that the crime against children in Tamil Nadu has been encountering a rampant rise in the last five years.

The data had shockingly shown that crimes against children in the state increased by 250% in the last five years and underlined that nearly half of all the crimes are sexual offenses. The reports say that of those embarrassing numbers, about 49% of the crimes were brought under the grounds of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses Act (POCSO) as in the year 2017-18, the sexual offenses had accounted with 18% of raise than what was recorded in the preceding year. During the same period, the country reported with the national average of 9.9%.

The data further revealed that the state of Tamil Nadu had come through a total of 4,155 crimes that were reported against the children during 2018 and these numbers had a flagrant impact in the national average as the state accounted with 3% of total crimes against children reported in the country during the same period. In line with that, Tamil Nadu has been one of the five Indian states that hosted most cases of procurement of the minor girls as for the last year, the cases increased to 95% than the previous year. In 2017, the state had reported with 76 cases while the number stood at 148 in 2018.

The state has been witnessing the steadfast elevation of the crimes against children despite the state department of social welfare had stated that it will maintain its registry of child sexual offenders with the view of lowering and resisting the crimes in the state. 

According to the Times of India, Karthik Narayanan, the regional director of Child Rights and You (CRY) has said that the numbers of crimes in Tamil Nadu have been presenting with worrying situations as most of the crimes have been registered under POCSO Act. By stating that education, awareness, and community vigilance play key factors, he stated that investing more towards child protection would be playing an important role in lowering the aberrant trend.