Daily Times

LAHORE: Non-Governmental Organisation Sahil shared annual statistical data of reported child sexual abuse cases in Pakistan titled Cruel Numbers in collaboration with Search For Justice and Child Rights Movement Punjab at the Lahore Press Club during a media briefing on Wednesday.

Sahil’s Senior Regional Coordinator Ansar Sajjad Bhatti shared that according to Cruel Numbers, there were 3,445 children who had been sexually abused during 2017, out of which 2,077 were girls and 1,368 were boys. The data shows that there was increase in the difference between last year’s reports of boys which was 28 percent in comparison to the girls.

The data reveals that now, in a day more than nine children have been abused during the year 2017. The major crime categories of the reported cases are 1,039 abductions, 517 missing children, 467 rapes, 366 sodomy cases, 206 attempts to rape, 180 gang sodomy, 158 gang rapes and 109 cases of child marriages. During the reported period, there were 109 cases of murder after sexual abuse. It shows that nine percent cases have increased as compared to 100 reported cases in 2016.

A total number of 5,284 abusers were identified which also includes the data of gangs involved in all the cases of abuse excluding 143 cases of child marriages. The data shows that 640 children in the age bracket of six-10 years and 961 children between the age bracket of 11-15 years are the most vulnerable to abuse. The data also shows that out of a total of 3,445 cases, 47 percent belonged to this age bracket. A total of 63 percent cases were reported from Punjab, 27 percent from Sindh, four percent from Balochistan, three from Islamabad and two percent from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Out of a total of 3,445 cases, 2,610 were reported from rural areas and 835 from urban areas of the country.

Speaking on the occasion, Search For Justice Executive Director Iftikhar Mubarik shared his deep concern over the growing incidents of child sexual abuse and as well as absence of sustainable policies, strategies and action plan by the government to address the issue. He urged to establish a Child Safety Cell in each district of Punjab to deal with the cases of violence against children in general and child sexual abuse in particular.

Child Rights Movement Punjab Provincial Coordinator Rashida Qureshi has urged to include child protection messages into school curriculum with a clear view to empower children for their own protection. She also urged for a formulation of child protection policy in Punjab as well as to initiate rehabilitation programmes for the survivors of child sexual abuse. She also highlighted the importance to introduce a comprehensive Child Protection System to ensure the protection of children at grass roots level.

Published in Daily Times, April 19^th 2018.