Child Abuse

Letter April 12, 2019
Government needs to urgently take action against the menace

KARACHI: Despite a 32 per cent increase in child sexual abuse cases in 2018, the government has not yet taken satisfactory steps to ensure the safety of children. One of the cases that received the most attention was that of Zainab, a six-year-old girl from Kasur.

The brutality of the case prompted many protests and it was later discovered that children were trafficked for as low as Rs50 around that town. Moreover, 2018 came to an end with the grim news of the rape of an eight-year- old named Minahil from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. To add to that, 2019 started with yet another case of a three- year-old, Faryal from Abbottabad, who was brutally assaulted then killed. Similarly, many more cases are likely to remain unreported yet statistics show that in the last five years, approximately 10,000 girls and 7,000 boys have been sexually abused.

Children deserve to be protected, sheltered and provided with education, as is their right according to the Constitution, and the Universal Human Rights. The above-mentioned cases reflect a lack of education, unemployment and a rise in a perverse mentality that stems from a feeling of invincibility, as the culprits are rarely caught. The government needs to urgently take action against the menace. However, we as citizens also need to look after one another and keep our eyes open for such incidents, as it is happening all around us.

Maha Irfan

Published in The Express Tribune, April 12th, 2019.

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