Pakistan’s most populous province has witnessed a sharp uptick in violence against women, with over 10,000 cases of violence reported and as many as 5,551 women kidnapped during the first four months of this year.
According to a report by the Sustainable Social Development Organisation (SSDO), a research-based advocacy firm, Punjab police registered an alarmingly high number of FIRs of cases of violence against women and children.
“During just the first four months of this year, over 12,000 cases were reported. This paints a very alarming picture of women’s safety in Pakistan’s largest province,” said SSDO Executive Director Syed Kausar Abbas.
SSDO collected the data through filing a ‘Right to Information’ request to the Punjab Police through Article 19-A of the Constitution.
“We hope this data can provide a reference point for policymakers and other stakeholders to direct their efforts towards a targeted approach to curbing this issue.”
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From January 1, 2023 to April 30, 2023, a total of 10,365 cases of violence against women were reported to the police, while 1,768 cases of violence against children were reported in the same period.
SSDO believes that the actual frequency of unreported cases may be even higher, as many people are unlikely to report such cases due to social stigma and lack of faith in law enforcement.
A staggeringly high number of 5,551 women were kidnapped in Punjab during these four months, which meant that on average, two women were kidnapped after every single hour.
Out of all districts, Lahore led with 1,427 cases, which meant that one out of every four victims were kidnapped from the provincial capital.
The next highest numbers were seen in cases of physical assault (2,818), where Lahore once again remained the hotspot of crime (504), followed by Sheikhupura (262) and Faisalabad (225).
In addition, 1,111 cases of rape and 613 cases of human trafficking were also reported, where once again Lahore accounted for the highest number of cases, 139 and 210 respectively. A large number of rape cases were also reported from Faisalabad (117).
Apart from crimes in the public sphere, a significant number of cases of violence against women in the private sphere was also reported.
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219 cases of domestic violence were reported, where Gujranwala emerged as the hotspot district (64), followed by Lahore (38). Moreover, 53 cases of honour killing were also reported, where Rahim Yar Khan (8) was a hotspot district.
In terms of violence against children, it was horrifying to observe that sexual violence was the most prevalent, with a total of 858 cases. This would mean that almost 7 children were sexually abused every single day. Among the hotspot districts were Faisalabad (82) and Lahore (74).
Furthermore, 613 children were also kidnapped in this short time span, for an average of 5 per day. One-third of these cases were from Lahore (210).
Along with kidnapping, 221 children were also subjected to human trafficking, with Chiniot (44) accounting for almost one-fifth of the cases.
On the other hand, 48 children were also murdered, while 24 cases of child labour and 4 cases of child marriage were also reported.
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