Bhopal, Aug 9 - It's a dubious honour Madhya Pradesh might want to do away with. The state tops the list of crimes against children - with over a dozen children in the state falling victims to crimes such sexual abuse, kidnapping, prostitution and infanticide each day.

The National Crime Records Bureau report for 2007 released recently says that as many as 4,290 cases of crimes against children were recorded during the year in Madhya Pradesh. Incidents of sexual abuse of children (1,043) account for the maximum cases of crime.

'This in other words means that every day three children of the state are exposed to sexual abuse,' said Rajiv Bhargava of Bachpan - an organisation working for child right's protection.

As many as 283 cases of kidnapping of children were reported during the year.

Twenty-one percent of the total cases recorded accounted for infanticide while 6.3 percent cases pertained to girl-child prostitution in the state and 2.9 percent accounted for selling girl child for prostitution.