Punjab

2,252 children sexually abused in 2010

NGO releases annual report on child abuse statistics.

Express April 08, 2011

LAHORE:

A total of 2,252 children throughout Pakistan were sexually assaulted in the year 2010, revealed the annual report of Sahil, an NGO that works towards eliminating child abuse.

The report is based on data collected from January 2010 through December 2010 from 66 Pakistani newspapers monitored daily, said a Sahil representative. He said the cases involving victims below 18 years of age were compiled in a report called Cruel Numbers.

According to the report, at least seven children were assaulted daily. Excluding children who had been abducted, an average of four children were assaulted The nature of the crime has been divided into several categories in the report with abduction, rape or sodomy and gang rape or gang sodomy having the highest percentages.

The data shows that 73 per cent of the children who were sexually assaulted were girls and 27 per cent were boys.

The data also shows that a total of 4,543 abusers were involved.

The largest group of abusers was identified as acquaintances of the victims, the second largest group was strangers, and the third largest was relatives. It further revealed that in 21 per cent of the cases, the children were abused more than once by the same abuser. Similar to the results of previous years, the most vulnerable age group among girls was 11 years to 18 years. Among boys this age bracket was 6 years to 15 years.

A province-wise division shows that 76 per cent of the cases were reported from Punjab, followed by Sindh and Islamabad

Recommendations

Sahil also suggested recommendations for child protection at provincial level. It demanded establishment of a protection, intervention and rehabilitation centre in the province. Further, the NGO urged for a course to be included in primary education to teach children how to keep safe.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 8^th, 2011.

COMMENTS (12)

Muhammad Imran Qureshi | 13 years ago | Reply Whatever the circumstances of the day are in the notice of every sensible person. Abuses are around us and we will have to eschew by ourself. Child abuse make peculiar effects on the victim's personality. Parents are the real safeguards to their children. when the children grew up, it is must for the parents to have a strict eye over all of their activities and their intimates where do they go, where do they have company of some elder or unknown peoples. We will have to make your home on the islamic basics and islamic concepts. We will have to kick off the west system to say a warmth wel come of Islamic System as the entire world turned to Islam near the catastrophe. I appeal from the core of my heart to the sweet readers to make Islam your code of life to get suffice in this world and after this.

nasir | 13 years ago | Reply this is a big problem in our country. our govt. should cover this sin. but the problem is that our govt. is sleeping what will he do. but we are muslim our religion does not allow us to do that. what we are able to be called a muslim.

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Raj | 13 years ago | Reply In the west there is so much emphasis on this awareness. Kids are taught about their personal and private space. Children are taught that if someone touches them inappropriately they should immediately tell about this to parents and teachers. In our countries, the need is to educate our kids.

N | 13 years ago | Reply @Henna: *his

N | 13 years ago | Reply @Henna: u should be thankful that it was just your finger

Adnan | 13 years ago | Reply These are vague figures. Most children don't even report any such abuse and sometimes its some relative only who's behind these hideous crimes. Barbaric society ours !!

Cautious | 13 years ago | Reply I guess the "land of the pure" ain't so pure.

Yasir Khokhar | 13 years ago | Reply Agreed with your solution mehwish. Such people should be given exemplory punishments to send a loud and clear message for rest of the culprits. Such kind of incidents leave an unforgetbale/bad memory which could disturb the victims life for years ahead. Personality dis-orders, lack of confidence or inculcating in habits to trap more people in the same crime are more of incidents. You cant get rid of such issues unless you find such culprits and punish them.

Mehwish Tariq | 13 years ago | Reply The irony is that the people at the helm do not realize severity of the problem, particularly the agony and pain such an incident inflicts upon the victim family. If I were the chief executive, I would simply try the perpetrators of such heinous crimes in summary trial courts and give them exemplary punishment - capital - in less than two weeks so as to send a loud and clear message across the country. But our chief executives are least bothered to take any step in such a direction only because their children move in protected environments. Its my firm belief that unless a strict punishment regime is put in place we cannot arrest such horrible incidents. And I strongly endorse Henna, that all parents must keep a vigilant eye on their children. Not only in their homes while they are being taught either by a clergy or a tutor but also outdoor.. What do they do and who do they meet or spend time with. The recent killing of a 16-year old boy in a Rawalpindi neighborhood, apparently in a kidnapping for ransom incident, also suggested that the teenager's parents had turned a blind eye towards his company with some ill-famed people older than him.

Xam Xaffa | 13 years ago | Reply @QuranVsHadith: They are talking about the REPORTED cases.

Henna | 13 years ago | Reply now people will complain, "koi aur news naee hay?? don't put this stuff!" WELL THIS IS NEWS. this could happen to your kid. there's a bloody child molester in every family. i know there's one in mine, and i know there's one in my best friend's family too.it's so common. and of course they never face the consequences because everyone hushes it up for their stupid "izzat" as if they deserve it!!! i say MAKE IT PUBLIC, make everyone know, so the people who do it are SHAMED instead of protected!!! it's so common in our sick culture because ham jitna chupatay hain, loag itna hi frustrate hotay hain, and also people have mental problems. disgusting. this could happen to YOUR KID... don't let them go around playing with people you don't know... my khala's neighbour's four year old daughter (her stupid mum just used to send her to play with the next door neighbours servants) she was raped and KILLED by one of them, and her body was found in the gutter. this is one example. i'm glad to know this stuff is finally come out and not being hidden anymore... what i'm trying to say is PLEASE BE VIGILANT WITH YOUR CHILDREN!!! keep an eye on them at ALL TIMES @QuranVsHadith - you are totally right!!! also, people should watch their children when they've got a maulvi sahib over teaching the kids quran! i've heard they're not exactly angels... mine used to stick his finger in my mouth if i ever dared to yawn... i mean what the hell???????????

QuranVsHadith | 13 years ago | Reply that is NOT accurate.. what about the 80% of the Millions of HADITHER MADRASA STUDENTS who are ABUSED everyday!! or are they not considered HUMAN?

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