Child Protection Act Due to High Rate of Crimes Against Children in India
Delhi with 3,635 cases  topped the list of cities where highest number of crime against children was committed in 2012 as per NCRB records. The total crimes committed against children in 2011 was 5,500. The Child Protection Act was recently instituted and started being enforced more..The Act  provides for punishments, ranging from simple to rigorous imprisonment of varying periods, graded as per the gravity of the offence. There is also a provision for fine. The cops have been briefed about the Child Protection Act and asked to be sensitive towards offenses related to children. Sharing his views with TOI, head of the department of Sociology, Allahabad University, Prof A Satyanarayana said, it is the outcome of access to the western mass media in which pornography is easily available and  sows the seed of sick mentality towards others especially the fairer sex. Social values have degraded over the years, he added. A weak legal system is yet another lacuna which adds to the menace, said Prof Narayana. Commenting on the issue, an expert from the Centre of Behavioral and Cognitive Science (CBCS) of AU, Dr Bhoomika R Kar, who has done extensive research on the problems faced by kids, opines that it is not that there is a sudden increase in crime against children but the reality is that such cases are being reported more now as people are coming out and speaking about it. Children have always been a soft target both because at times they are not much aware of the fact that what is happening to them is wrong. If at all they are aware of it, then they are scared to speak about it, said the expert. Right from early childhood, kids should be taught about the sensitive issues and the lawmakers too should enact and follow strict laws to curb this menace and keep the kids safe, she added. The genesis of the problem lies in sick minds that some people grow up to have, said Dr Kar. Source:  The Times of India (published on 13 July, 2013) .

Southeast Asia- US Connection

Washington: An Indian has been sentenced to three years in prison for trafficking women from India into the United States.
Kaushik Jayantibhai Thakkar, 33, along with Brazilian national Fabiano Augusto Amorim, was sentenced  to three years in prison for their roles in smuggling undocumented migrants to the US for private financial gain, the acting assistant US attorney general Mythili Raman said.  Thakkar and Amorim were also sentenced to serve two years of supervised release, as per the order of the US District Judge Ewing Werlein in the southern district of Texas. On December 2, 2012, and January 4, 2013,  Thakkar and Amorim pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to bring undocumented migrants into the US for profit and to one count of unlawfully bringing two undocumented migrants into the United States for profit.	Using a network they transported groups of undocumented migrants from locations within India through South America, Central America and the Caribbean and then into the US by various means, including by air travel, automobiles, water craft and foot, the justice department said. Many of these smuggling events involved illegal entry into the US via the border between the United States and Mexico near McAllen and Laredo, Texas, it added. Source:  The Times of India  (published on 18 May, 2013)