"People scare me," the voice of a seven year-old in Peshawar
The growing illness of child abuse in Pakistan has risen.
Dunya News Report (Yaruq Malik)
ISLAMABAD: The Senate has passed a bill which declares child pornography, trafficking and sexual assault against minors a punishable crime. If convicted, the accused will face up to seven years in prison. Moreover, child pornography has been deemed as a crime in the state of Pakistan.
This is the first time that a bill has been passed that criminalizes child abuse in Pakistan. Previously, only rape was criminalized under the law.
“This is a very important step to realize the obligations of Pakistan under the Convention on the Rights of a Child,” said the chief of child protection (UNCRC) at UNICEF.
According to a study conducted by a non-governmental organization (NGO), the total number of boys being abused has increased by 4.3 percent in 2015. The study also stated that, in 2015, 178 boys between the ages of 6 to 10 were abused.
According to the data compiled by Sahil, an organization working on child abuse cases, around 3,002 child abuse cases were reported in 2013. Alarmingly, in 2014, the number of victims increased to 3,508. However, the reports by the Punjab Police reveal no data on child abuse cases.
Unfortunately, the families of the abused children refrain from reporting these incidents to the police or the media in order to avoid ‘social shame’.
Iftikhar Mubarak, the spokesperson for the Child Rights Movement insists that the problem of child abuses not being reported properly is due to a deeper root cause that the society has instilled in their culture. He said that parents and teachers hold the responsibility of educating children about abuses. Moreover, he requested the government to authorize an independent department that deals with child abuse cases and the investigation that follows up.
The Kasur incident marked the ‘identification’ of child abuse as a serious matter in Pakistan. Previously, it was an unknown fable as people would either not report the matter or the law enforcing agencies would bury the evidence under piles of other similar cases.
According to media reports, the abusers would force children to perform sexual acts on video and later on sell the footage or blackmail the families. A total of 130 video clips were acquired during the raid.
“My son is in the videos, he is a victim and our children were forced into this. They were humiliated. The police are treating them like criminals. I went to the police station to file a complaint, but instead of registering a report, they took my son into custody. The police station clerk told me to get lost and I was thrown out.” said Rubina Bibi, a grieving mother of the abused.
Renowned filmmaker and the director of the documentary ‘Pakistan’s hidden shame’, Muhammad Naqvi covered the child abuse cases in Peshawar. The Emmy award winning filmmaker believes that it is a well known fact in Peshawar that young boys are a tool of sexual misconduct. His documentary sheds light on the matter in great detail as he roams around the Peshawar slums reporting the accounts of young boys who sell themselves due to extreme poverty.
“To specify that the abuse of street children is limited to Peshawar and its conservative pockets would be inaccurate. In fact, local researches estimate that nine out of ten street children from all over Pakistan have suffered some form of sexual abuse, including my home city of Karachi. I witnessed parents being indifferent to their sons being abused, boys preferring to live on the streets and sell themselves rather than live at home, and the abused boys who carry on the cycle by abusing younger boys.” stated Mr. Naqvi in an interview.
“People scare me,” said Bilal, a young boy who was interviewed.
The question remains unanswered. Is a seven year prison penalty enough for a person who has raped a child? Will the society wake up against child abuse as a serious matter? Will the law enforcing agencies provide secrecy and protection for the parents who wish to report such cases?
The Senate bill is indeed a small step forward in the child abuse tragedy that has been haunting Pakistan for decades, yet, it is a step towards eradicating an illness that was in the dark for so long.
