862 Cases of Child Abuse Reported in First Half of 2024: Report

News Desk
Islamabad: As many as 862 cases of child sexual abuse, 668 cases of abduction, 82 cases of missing children, and 18 cases of child marriages were reported in Pakistan, Sahil’s recent study revealed.
From January to June 2024, the following cases were reported:
Child Sexual Abuse: 862 cases
Abduction: 668 cases
Missing Children: 82 cases
Child Marriages: 18 cases
Pornography after Sexual Abuse: 48 cases
The data indicates that out of the total 962 reported cases, 59 percent of the victims were girls and 41 percent were boys.
The age distribution of the victims shows that the 6-15 year age group remains the most vulnerable, with:
693 children aged 6-15 years
94 children aged 0-5 years
231 children aged 16-18 years
612 cases where the age of the victims was not mentioned.
In the first six months of 2024, a total of 1,630 cases of child abuse were reported across the country.
Of these cases, 47 percent involved abusers who were acquaintances, 18 percent were committed by strangers, and 9 percent involved both acquaintances and strangers.
Geographically, 78 percent of the reported cases were from Punjab, while 6 percent were from the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT).
The remaining cases were distributed as follows: 11 percent from Sindh, 3 percent from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP), and 2 percent from Balochistan, Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB).
Regarding the urban-rural distribution, 44 percent of the cases were reported from urban areas, and 56 percent from rural areas.
For this year Sahil has also monitored the cases of Violence Against Women. A total number 1,732 cases were reported that includes different forms of violence, such as murder, suicide, abduction, rape, honor killing, and tortured.
Sahil, a non-governmental organization focused on child protection since 1996, has been dedicated to addressing child sexual abuse. In addition to their advocacy work, Sahil provides comprehensive legal, emotional, and psychological support to victims.
From January to June 2024, Sahil monitored 81 daily national and regional newspapers to gather data on child sexual abuse, abduction, missing children, and early marriages.
The six-month report is based on data collected from these newspapers across all four provinces, as well as Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB).