Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Besides physical and other kinds of violence, more than 46 percent children in the society are victims of psychological violence, revealed a report conducted by the Ministry of Human Rights.

The National Commission for Child Welfare Development (NCCWD), an attached entity of the ministry, conducted a report titled Prevailing Situation Of Violence Against Children In Pakistan, a copy of which is available with Daily Times. It is stated that it was experienced that the ratio of ‘sometimes’ psychological violence is 38 percent during the past three years while only 8 percent children faced ‘often’ psychological violence.

“In general, violence in the community is highly visible and often labeled as a crime as compared to violence in domestic spheres which is less visible,” said the report. The study added that the community which usually victimises children for abuse is known as persons such as neighbours and friends.

To elobrate this, an eight-year-old was quoted as saying, “Two boys who lived in my neighbourhood, have pressurised me to join their gang. When I refused and threatened to tell their parents, they hit me. Now they shout at me and call me names and threaten to hit me further.”

The age wise magnitude of such abusive children commonly constitutes 61 percent among the children of age group of five to eight followed by 52 percent among nine-10-year-olds.

The report further stated that such types of abusers also make children their subject of physical violence that constitutes almost 44 percent of the overall society as per the conducted surveys, adding that the most common form of physical violence by community members is hitting the child on his face which makes up 23 percent of the “bullies” who do it, followed by hitting the child on his body.

As per report, 10 percent children face sexual abuse outside their homes.

The report also assessed that children were also assaulted by parents and other family members.

The findings also revealed that 84 percent Pakistani children face psychological violence by their parents in various ways. A total of 74 percent children have been tortured physically and three percent children are sexually abused by foster parents.

The study found that children having parents without formal education, belonging to poor families and witnessing interpersonal violence between parents experienced more psychological, physical and sexual abuse. In addition, this study identified that in schools, children confronted less violence as compare to out of school children.

It highlighted that children are also prone to developing negative habits during leisure time.

In its recommendations regarding the gathered facts, the NCCWD said that it is widely acknowledged that child abusers cannot be arrested until accurate statistics/proofs are given, identified or systematically documented. It added that awareness on that front was most necessary.

“There is need to introduce affective and integrated preventive programme including legal, social, educational and economic strategies to reduce risk factor of violence against children,” it suggested.

Published in Daily Times, April 11^th 2018.