Over 2,000 children sexually abused during last six month, report reveals

Shazia Mehboob

ISLAMABAD: At least 2,211 children were sexually abused across Pakistan during the last six months, a non-governmental organization working against child abuse, in a report titled ‘Cruel Number’ revealed on Monday.

According to the data collected by Sahil from 81 national, local and regional newspapers of all four provinces, including Islamabad, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan, at least 12 children were subjected to sexual abuse on average every day while in comparison to 10 children per day in the last year’s January-June 2021 report.

The total number of reported major crime categories is child sexual abuse (CSA), abduction, missing children, and child marriages.

The categories by the organization report included 1,170 cases of child sexual abuse; 803 cases of abduction; 212 cases of missing children and 26 cases of child marriages.

The report shows that out of the total reported cases, as many as 1,207 (55%) of victims were girls and 1,004 (45%) were boys. During the last six months as many as 567 boys were stood victim of different forms of sodomy and abduction and 551 girls stood victim of different forms of rape and abduction.

In the first six months of 2022, at least 59 cases of pornography and 17 cases of Incest were reported, the report states.

The data reveals that children from the age group 6-15 are most vulnerable to abuse as 715 children from the age bracket of 11-15 years and 401 children from the age brackets of 6-10 were sexually abused from January-June, 2022.

In the reported cases, in 1,050 cases accused were acquaintances, 409 strangers, 39 relatives, 32 female abettors, 50 teachers and in 63 cases neighbours were involved in sexual nature crime against children. However, if all the named persons are included, there are 1,492 (67%) cases of abusers were involved.

In the first six months, 71 per cent of the total cases were reported from Punjab and 9 per cent from the ICT. The rest of the cases are reported from other provinces including 15 per cent cases from Sindh, 3 per cent cases from KP, and 2 per cent cases from Balochistan, AJK & GB.

Out of the total reported cases, 48 per cent were from rural areas and 52 per cent crimes were reported from urban areas.

According to analysis of the media reports, out of the total reported cases of child abuse, 89 percent of cases were registered with the police. In 26 cases, the case was either not registered with the police or the police refused to register the case.