Improvement in legal literacy, strengthening of awareness activities, and lesser hesitation in reporting sexual crime against children have led to better reporting of POCSO cases.
The number of cases reported under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act in Kerala continues to rise, underscoring the vulnerability of children despite the presence of various protection mechanisms.
In 2024, the number of POCSO cases reported in the State was 4,607. This increased to 4,765 in 2025, according to the annual report of the Kerala State Commission for Protection of Child Rights for 2025-26.
In 2013, the year the commission came into being, the number of POCSO cases reported was 1,002. The increase, however, cannot be interpreted as a rise in the number of crime alone.
Better reporting
Improvement in legal literacy, strengthening of awareness activities, and lesser hesitation in reporting sexual crime against children have led to better reporting of incidents, says the report.
Data provided by the State Crime Records Bureau to the child rights panel show that the highest number of cases was reported in Thiruvananthapuram district—689. This is up from 602 in 2024.
Kollam was next with 502 cases. Malappuram and Kozhikode followed with 465 and 460 cases, respectively. The higher number of cases in some districts is attributed to access to POCSO reporting mechanisms, population density, urbanisation, and better awareness.
86% girls
As many as 86% (4,167) of the 4,818 child survivors in 4,765 cases were girls. In 2024, the figure was nearly 85%. The number of boy survivors was 13% (618), while in 1% of the cases the gender was not known.
Children in the 15-18 age group remain the most vulnerable with 55% (2,666) of the survivors in that age bracket.
As many as 33% were in the 10-14 bracket, 9% in the 5-9 bracket, and 2% in the 0-4 age group. Among the survivors, 3% (154) were differently abled children, up from 2% (104) the previous year.
In familiar spaces
As per the statistics, sexual crime against children occurs mostly in private and familiar spaces. Most of the offenders are family members or those familiar to the children. This underscores the need to provide children with life skill training to understand sexual crime, says the report.
As many as 1,032 (22%) of the offences took place in the houses of the survivors and 615 (13%) in the houses of the offenders.
As much as 10% of the offences took place in public spaces, 4% in multiple places, 3% in vehicles, and 2% in schools and 14% of the offences occurred in hostels, cyberspace, and houses of relatives of either survivors or offenders. In 27% of the cases, the place of occurrence was unclear.
Published – August 07, 2026 07:30 am IST
