‘Cruel numbers report’ discloses alarming surge in child abuse across the country

The report includes cases reported from all four provinces.

ISLAMABAD (Online) - With number of child abuse cases mounting to 2322 in the first six months of the outgoing year, a chilling 32% percent surge in cases pertaining to child abuse was witnessed, suggests a report titled ‘cruel numbers report’ by Sahil, an Islamabad-based civil society organization working against child sex abuse.

The Data collected through daily monitoring of 91 local and national newspapers revealed shocking amount of increase in cases With a daily toll of cases now standing at over 12, 32% higher as compared to the 1764 cases reported during the same period of the previous year.

The report includes cases reported from all four provinces vis-a-vis Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB).

The major crime categories of the reported cases from Jan-Jun 2018 were abduction 542, sodomy 381, rape 360, missing children 236, attempted rapes 224, gang sodomy 167, attempted Sodomy 112, gang rape 92 and 53cases of child marriages.

“Cruel Numbers Report” is a comprehensive report on facts and figures in connection with child sexual abuse and its dynamics with an aim to contribute to existing information on child sexual abuse in Pakistan”, says the report.

This year, from January to June 2018 a total 57 cases were reported of murder after sexual abuse.

The statistics of Cruel Numbers six months data shows that out of the total reported 2322 cases, 1298 (56%) of victims were girls and while 1024 (44%) boys.

The data also revealed that 622 children in the age bracket 11-15 years and 526 children between the age brackets of 6-10 years were most vulnerable to abuse.

Reportedly 65% cases were from Punjab, 25% from Sindh, 3% from Islamabad, 3% KPK, 2% from Balochistan, 21 cases from AJK and 2 cases were from GB; the Provincial divide statistics discloses.

Out of the total reported cases, 74% were from rural areas and 26% cases reported from urban areas.

Out of the total cases, some 89% were registered with the police, whereas in 32 cases the police refused to register cases while 17 cases went unregistered. On the other hand registration status of 196 cases was not mentioned in the monitored newspapers.

The Increasing phenomenon of cases being reported with the Police is seen as vital sign since according to the Civil Society Organization the outcry on Zainab murder case helped families of victims to speak out rather than hiding the heinous crim.

“The Zainab’s murder case gave courage to the victim families to speak out rather than hiding the incidents of sexual abuse. Soon after that case, a drastic change has been noticed in the attitude and behavior of families towards such cases” reads an excerpt from the report.

Alike alarming was the situation of increase in abuse cases against children up to five years of age as in the first six months of 2017, overall 79 cases were reported. In contrast the first six months of current year have observed 321 cases.

“Attempted sodomy cases have been increased by 148%, attempt of rape 115%, sodomy 100%, gang sodomy 56% and rape cases also increased by 48% as compared to the last year Jan-Jun 2017. Whereas cases of Vanni have decreased by 43%, sodomy murder 40%, and rape-murder 32% as compared to the last year’s six months data” read the report.