Daily Times

The statistical report with respect to cruel numbers January to June for the year 2019 was presented by Barkat Ali Ansari, the provincial coordinator of Sahil, an NGO has been working since 1996 on child protection mainly against child sexual abuse, along with Irshad Ali Ghanghro, legal aid officer, during a press conference, on Wednesday.

The cruel data which is based on child sexual abuse cases reported in 84 national, regional and local daily newspapers. The data also includes cases directly received by Sahil which offers free legal and psychological aid to victims of Child Sexual Abuse [CSA], while cases reported to other organisations have also been included.

Last six month report shows that, the child sexual abuse rate in Pakistan continues to be 7 children per day.

Total number of cases reported during last six month are 1304 including both boys and girls while majority of the cases are reported in the crime category of rape/sodomy and abduction for sexual purposes respectively. However, we believe that these numbers do not represent the total numbers of such incidents in Pakistan – keeping in mind that such incidents often are under reported.

Gender Divide: A gender split analysis shows that female reported cases of Child Sexual Abuse are more in number than the male cases. Out of total 1304 children who were sexually abused, 575 were boys and 729 were girls.

Crime Category: In this time period, major categories of crimes are abduction, rape/sodomy and gang rape/sodomy. 378 girls and boys kidnapped out of 1304 victims of abduction. Under the reported cases of rape and sodomy 153 boys and 139 girls are raped/sodomy. Numbers of gang rape/sodomy cases are also very high, 134children in which 46 were girls and 88 were boys.

Abuser’s Category: From 1304 cases, the 1st numbers of abusers are acquaintances and number is 614, and second major abuser category is stranger which 142 are. Rests of the categories are relative, neighbor, female abettor, driver, Molvies, Policemen and others.

Age of Victim: If we consider age group from 1-5 years there are 75 children victimised 6-10 years 297 children, 11-15 years 414 children, 16-18 year figure is 117 and rest of 401 children age was not cleared.

Geographical Areas: Amid the geographical areas, highest number of cases was reported from Punjab province with almost 652. It is followed by Sindh where 458 cases took place, 90 cases reported from the Federal Capital, 58 cases from the KPK, 32 cases from Baluchistan as well. 18 cases from Azad Jammu and Kashmir were reported.

Urban & Rural Divide: The division between urban rural areas has a lot of divergence. This is directly related to the fact that 70% of the population lives in rural areas. 41 % cases are reported from urban areas and 59% cases are reported from rural areas.

Status of CSA: From 1304 case 1145 cases registered at police station, 121 case statuses were not mentioned and 22 cases were not registered.

Place of Abuse: Victims of abuse where happen, on them most of case identification was not clear while numbers of cases were 590 and second number 300 place was acquaintance and third held at victims place in the absence of children parents numbers 203, others 55 in field, 87 in streets, 2 schools and colleges, 3 work place, 20 in jungle.