Considering the recent cases of sexual crime allegedly committed by minors in the state, experts opine that parents giving little time and attention to their children is one of the major reasons for this alarming trend. They state that the rise in nuclear family replacing the joint family system is also one of the reasons why minors are indulging in crimes they do not even understand properly.

The recent case of an 11 year old allegedly molesting a three-year-old girl in Dehradun is one such example of the trend.

Highlighting more about this psychologist Mukul Sharma said, “There are many reasons which are leading to these kinds of crimes that involve minors. Number one reason can be that parents give less time to their children as nowadays both the parents work and have no time for their children. To make up for the time they are unable to give, they give their children gadgets that they have open access too. The second factor is parents having very little knowledge about their children as in many of the cases parents knew that their children are going to tuition but they fail to know the exact location or teacher. This is one of the reasons minor get involved in crimes.”

Informing about potential causes for such cases the Dehradun Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Nivedita Kukreti said, “The overexposure to mobile phones and the internet has increased the occurrence of such crimes.  Quite often in the cases that come to us, the accused acknowledge that they were influenced by something they watched in a movie or website.  A combination of less or partial knowledge about anything and curiosity of the child tends to lead to such crimes. These all points are connected to the way parents raise their children which should be focused upon with utmost care.”

State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (SCPCR) chairperson Usha Negi said, “We have initiated a campaign which includes all the schools for spreading awareness among the students about all the crimes. The schools, however, are closed so the programme was postponed. This campaign will be undertaken for three months starting from August.”