Ludhiana ‘most unsafe’ city in Punjab for juveniles, says NCRB report
With 283 cases of crime against juveniles, Ludhiana is on the top spot in the state followed by Sahibzada Ajit Singh Nagar (Mohali) and Patiala, shows the NCRB data
Ludhiana has been found to the ‘most unsafe’ city of Punjab for juveniles according to the latest report released by the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB).
With 283 cases of crime against juveniles, the city is on the top spot in the state followed by Sahibzada Ajit Singh Nagar (Mohali) and Patiala.
According to the NCRB report, 11% of all cases of crime against juveniles in Punjab were reported in Ludhiana city in 2021.
A total of 2,556 such cases were registered in the state last year. Mohali is in second place with 252 cases and Patiala follows with 185 cases. Malerkotla is the ‘safest city’ for the juveniles with only 24 cases reported in 2021.
As many as 129 cases were reported from Amritsar city, 116 from Jalandhar and 119 from Bathinda.
Overall cases of crime against children were 225 in 2020 in Ludhiana city. The number was 328 in 2019 and 352 in 2018.
According to a police official, Ludhiana, being an industrial city, has a thick population of labourers, who live in labour quarters (vehras). “Most of the children of labourers living in the vehras are prone to sexual assaults. In 2020, due to the lockdown imposed after the coronavirus outbreak, labourers had remained in their homes with their kids, which was why the number of rape cases against minors reduced to just one that year. After the restrictions were lifted and labourers returned to work leaving the children at home, the cases started spiking,” he added.
In 2020, total 117 cases of abduction and kidnapping of minors was reported in the city. As many as 108 girls were abducted on the pretext of marriage, while nine minors were kidnapped for other reasons that year.
In 2021, 139 such cases were reported in Ludhiana, out of which 131 were related to abduction of girls.
Four minors were found murdered in 2020, including three boys and one girl, for different reasons, while in 2021, the number was three . Apart from it, eight cases under the Juvenile Justice Act were registered wherein parents and caretakers were booked for ill-treating children in 2020.
In 2021, only two such cases were reported. Four cases of child labour were also recorded in 2020, while in 2021, the number was two.
