Sex offence and Child abuse case high in Malappuram district of Kerala

Malappuram: Substance abuse and sexual offences are upping the crime graph in the district. They also lead to rampant abuse of schoolchildren addicted to drugs who want money to buy the contrabands like cannabis.

Childline estimates show the number of boys who are conceding to unnatural sexual acts with adult men to get a free drug or to make money to buy the stuff are on the rise.

The menace is rampant in towns like Malappuram, Perinthalmanna, Kottakkal and Parappanangadi where the contrabands are easily available.

Anwar Karakkadan, the district coordinator of the Childline, said around 80 percent of the child abuse cases here had a connection with drug and sexual abuses.

“The average number of child sexual abuse case in the district is 15 per month. Of which the children who concede to sex crimes for making money are five or six cases,” he says.

The exact number of such cases mostly goes unnoticed because they are categorised either under child sexual abuse or drug abuse according to the nature of offences.

The most populated district stands second in the state in the number of POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) cases according to latest police statistics.

The counselling sessions conducted for the victimised children have found that both the carelessness and strictness of the parents in families had led children to seek other to make money for drug or smartphones, Anwar said.

Recent raids by the police and excise in many parts of the district have unearthed drug cartels in which students were carriers and prime links.

“Conceding to sexual abuse hardly face legal action because of the consensual act. The victimised children also prefer to keep mum because they get enough money they sought to make,” says Shaji K.P., psychologist and member of the Juvenile Justice Board.

“Most recently, in the case of a 13-year-old boy from Edakkara who was a victim of frequent sexual abuses for long, I have found that he has earned around Rs 10,000 by various means.”