A 20-month-old baby girl was allegedly raped by her neighbour in Worli area of central Mumbai, police said on Monday.
The incident came to light after the child’s parents approached the police to lodge a complaint against their neighbour on Sunday, an official said.
As per the complaint, the family lives in a tenement and their 35-year-old neighbour had raped the toddler when the parents were away a couple of days ago, he said.
The parents realized something was wrong with the toddler when she kept crying and complaining about being in pain, the official said.
An FIR under section 376 (rape) of the Indian Penal Code and relevant provisions of the Protection of Children against Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act was registered against the accused, who has been arrested.
Child rape cases in India are the highest in the world and they are still on the constant rise. Delhi, capital of India has recorded the greatest number of child rape cases in the year 2021-2022, followed by Mumbai, the financial capital of India.
According to Mumbai police, Cases of child rape and molestation registered under the POCSO Act rose from 160 in 2017 to 191 in 2019 to 272 in 2021. Molestation cases rose from 257 in 2017 to 363 in 2019 to 414 cases in 2021 and they are still rising.
Government is trying their best to prevent these incidents from happening in near future by running several awareness campaigns in several schools across India. Till now, these campaigns haven’t affected much, but it’s expected that these campaigns will help in reducing the child rape and molestation cases.
There are hundreds of other children who have been the victim of such incidents, but they weren’t able to come out openly due to different reasons. One of the main reasons they weren’t able to come is because there was no one who listened to them or believed since they were a kid.
Government trying their level best to prevent such incidents, as much as possible.
