New Delhi, Jan 21 (IANS) Madhya Pradesh records the highest number of crimes against children and Delhi sits on the fourth spot, reveals National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data, pointing to a rise in such cases in India.

According to the NCRB, a total of 22,500 cases were reported in 2008. This rose to 24,201 in 2009, suggesting an increase of 7.6 percent.

Foeticide cases saw a huge increase - by 68.5 percent. In 2008, 73 such cases reported, which figure rose to 123 in 2009. Kidnappings and abductions saw a rise of 16.9 percent.

However, cases of rape of children saw a marginal drop of 1.4 percent in 2009 over the previous year and infanticide dropped by 55 percent.

Madhya Pradesh with 4,646 cases, Uttar Pradesh with 3,085 cases, Maharashtra with 2,894 and Delhi with 2,839 cases accounted for 19.2 percent, 12.7 percent, 12 percent and 11.7 percent of the cases respectively.

While Delhi saw a rise in such cases as compared to the previous year (from 8.2 percent in 2008 to 11.7 percent in 2009) and so did Madhya Pradesh (from 18.9 to 19.2 percent), Uttar Pradesh saw a drop - from 18.1 to 12.7 percent.

The percentage of cases of crimes against children in Maharashtra has remained the same in 2008 and 2009.