More Child Rapes Being Reported In Delhi, Police Say

Manish Swarup/Associated Press A girl at a protest near India Gate in New Delhi on Sunday.

The case of a five-year old girl in East Delhi who was raped this month, sparking protests across the city, is the fifth reported case of sexual abuse of a minor in the city in just one week in April, according to police records. However, Rajan Bhagat, a public relations officer with the Delhi Police, said that it was not necessarily the number of crimes that had increased in the city, but the number of reported cases.

“Yes, the number of incidents in 2013 has increased,’’ he said. “The reason for that is the increased awareness. The number of crimes committed is not increasing.”

Mr. Bhagat said that that he could not spell out the number of child abuse cases in Delhi. Although the Delhi police does have overall figures for rapes reported in 2013 in Delhi, they do not have specific figures for rapes of minors.

In 2011, 2,582 rape victims in India were under 14 years of age, or about ten percent of the total number of reported rape cases.

The National Crime Records Bureau does not have any specific data on crimes against children for the year 2012-2013 on its website.

Raveendran/Agence France-Presse â€" Getty Images A protester outside the police headquarters in New Delhi on Saturday.

Here are the other recent incidents the police have recorded:

A two-and-half year old girl was raped in the southwest Delhi subdistrict of  Najafgarh on April 18. A 25-year-old man named Rajdhir has been arrested.

A 5-year-old girl was sodomised at her school in the east Delhi area of Jagatpuri on April 17, according to police records. The accused is her kindergarten teacher, whose name was given only as Pramod, 32, and he has been arrested, the police said.

A 15-year-old student was gang-raped on April 17 in east Delhi. One of the accused was related to her, the police said. She was abducted from New Ashok Nagar area while she was on her way to school. One of the accused, Pradeep, 28, has been arrested and two others remain at large.

In the Sultanpuri area of west Delhi, a 10-year girl playing outside her home was lured away by neighbor, Rakesh Kaushal, into a stationary bus and raped on April 14, the police said. Mr. Kaushal has been arrested.