Daily Times

Have we lost all sense of shame? Have we lost the ability to feel and move? Have we lost all hope and aspirations? It seems that the very act of being human is too much to ask from a society where only geographical and emotional earthquakes shake us up. The incident in Kasur is not new but made news only a few days ago. The fact that this act can be traced back to 2006 is a reflection of the social and political mutation of our values, laws and governance; as with every mutation, it does lead to eventual destruction and damage. Young children being sexually abused, videotaped, blackmailed and made to abuse other children, money being extorted to shut them up and carry this psychological cancer inside them at an age where personality development is most vulnerable and crucial is more devastating than murder itself. It is an act that will put animals and barbarians to shame. But the so-called human race is busy debating whether there were 60 children involved or 285, and were the videos 100 in number or 400. The information minister declares it as exaggerated point scoring, the Chief Minister (CM) has not bothered to visit the area as the helipad was not ready for a place that is 30 minutes away from his house and the Prime Minister (PM) finds a tour to Belarus more enchanting than this temporary ruckus. This mindset itself is the root cause of letting the moral and social rot reach levels that defy description.
Being the sixth most populous country in the world with half of people under the age of 15, this country could easily have been classified as a budding market for the future. If India and China with over a billion people can be classified as rising super powers why does Pakistan feel pressed under the burden of the youth bulge? The answer is this uncomfortable reality that we have not planned, protected and educated our children the way these countries have. Look at some horrifying stats: Pakistan has one of the highest maternal and infant mortality rates in the world and the highest in South Asia, beating Maldives and Bhutan. Of every 1,000 children born, 86 will die due to the abysmal health provisions given to the common man. Every year, 300,000 children die due to water borne diseases. This means that every second a child is dying in Pakistan as we cannot even ensure clean drinking water for them. Of the ones who do survive, 25 percent will never have the chance to be educated. With 25 million children out of school, every fourth child out of school under the age of five in the world is a Pakistani. This is not just shameful; it is criminal.
Those who live and survive these health hardships are then subject to physical and sexual abuse. Sahil’s Cruel Numbers Report 2013 said that 3,002 children (2,017 girls and 985 boys) were victims of sexual abuse or harassment. Punjab had the highest incidence of child sexual abuse at a staggering 68 percent, followed by Sindh (19 percent), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (five percent) and Balochistan (three percent). Due to this taboo topic, the reported figures could be 10 times higher if a more socially acceptable mindset existed to make it part of a discourse. Most children do not even know what constitutes sexual abuse and are not armed with enough information to even understand how to talk about it. Parents themselves have viewed this as the ultimate shame to be hidden and not discussed in families. This avoidance provides opportunities for offenders to take advantage of such ignorance, shame and fear. Even if the social stigma factor is overcome, the police culture is even more frightening. Just recall the incident of the raped girl going to report the rape in the police station a few months ago and, instead of being helped, was raped by a policeman there. Then there is the rural hold of political influentials who use and abuse the police to attack police stations and harass police officers who dare to take action against the bigwigs. Last year, a Kasur MPA from the PML-N, Ahmad Saeed, who currently denies involvement in this case, was also allegedly involved in the gang rape of a 21-year-old girl whose video was made and culprits were caught by police in the same police station. Last year also the same MPA denied and then beat the officer who dared to keep the culprits. This case was shown on the media and, after a few days of hue and cry, was thrown out the window. Thus, if parents are ashamed and tightlipped, police harassed or in cahoots, MPAs and influential beating and breaking laws at will, the abuse will only multiply, and it has.
What do we need to do at every level to stop this flood of filth drowning the morality of humanity? Civil society needs to engage with communities more to create awareness amongst parents on how to create awareness in children and encourage them to raise their voices in time. The media should, keeping the privacy of the families in view, keep on raising this issue to put pressure on the government to stop this crime. Lawmakers in this country should make the law stringent and declare it as heinous as a terrorism crime needing rapid and strict punishment. In Punjab, the Destitute and Neglected Children Act 2004 was introduced in June 2004. Similarly, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa the Child Protection and Welfare Act was enacted in 2010. Contrary to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Act, the law in Punjab is deficient on different issues. Sexual abuse has not been included as an offence in it and only exposure to seduction is mentioned as a crime. Thus, cases in court will also get away with this laxness of the law. Post-abuse counselling and rehabilitation should be provided immediately to the affected as this is a most destructive virus that either debilitates the personality of the child totally or makes them become sexual offenders themselves.
The problem is that when the offenders are either heartless about the problem and have affinity with influentials why should they solve the problem? While we are talking of lifting the taboo off this topic and making drastic changes, the Speaker National Assembly prohibits resolution against this topic, saying that according to rules it is a provincial subject. It is a national subject; it is a subject that affects every child in this country, it is a subject affecting the core of society, it is a subject cutting at the heart of what has gone wrong with the country.

The writer is secretary information PTI Punjab, an analyst, a columnist and can be reached at andleeb.abbas1@gmail.com