India’s Child-Crime Emergency: MP Tops Charts Again as Six-Year-Old Rape Victim Battles for Life

Madhya Pradesh has once again cemented its shameful position as India’s child-crime Capital, recording 22,393 crimes against children in 2023—the highest in the country for the fifth straight year and contributing a staggering 13 percent of India’s total. With a crime rate of 77.9 per lakh child population—nearly double the national average—the state has become the epicenter of a deepening national crisis where, according to NCRB data, a child falls victim every three minutes and a POCSO case is registered every eight minutes.

The horrific rape of a six-year-old girl in Raisen district on November 21 has ripped open this festering wound. Lured with chocolates into a forest, the child was brutally assaulted, suffering multiple internal and external injuries so severe that she remains in ICU at Bhopal’s Hamidia Hospital. Doctors have warned that full recovery could take six months, and permanent damage cannot be ruled out. The prime accused, a 28-year-old local man, was arrested within hours, but the incident has triggered statewide outrage and exposed the terrifying vulnerability of Madhya Pradesh’s children.

The numbers are merciless: in 2023, Madhya Pradesh recorded the highest number of POCSO cases (over 8,500), the highest murders of children (321), and the highest kidnappings and abductions of minors. Even more chilling is the fact that in more than 90 percent of cases, the perpetrators are known to the victims—neighbors, relatives, teachers, or acquaintances—shattering the myth that strangers are the primary threat.

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Despite repeated promises of fast-track courts, zero-tolerance policies, and women police stations, conviction rates in POCSO cases hover below 30 percent in the state. Survivors and their families face social stigma, threats, and prolonged trials, while the accused often secure bail within months. In several districts, child rape cases have seen the accused walking free after witnesses turned hostile under pressure.

The Raisen incident has reignited demands for immediate systemic overhaul: stricter enforcement of the POCSO Act, time-bound trials, mandatory police verification of all individuals working with children, and removal of accused public servants pending inquiry. Opposition leaders have accused the BJP government of criminal negligence, pointing out that despite being in power for nearly two decades (except 2018–2020), the state has failed to curb the epidemic.

As the six-year-old fights for her life in Bhopal, her tragedy has become a brutal mirror to Madhya Pradesh’s failure—a state where childhood itself has become the most dangerous phase of life. Until the system stops protecting predators and starts protecting children, every statistic will continue to be a scream that went unheard.

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