Protecting our children

Another vile case of sexual abuse of children came to the fore this week, as the Lahore police rescued six young boys and arrested one person who was allegedly recording obscene videos of the victims. The police believe the suspect is part of a bigger ring and have begun conducting raids to find others who may have been helping the arrested man in drugging the children and recording them.

The latest incident, unfortunately, is not even the only crime against children to occur on that day. Earlier this year, child rights NGO Sahil released data that showed an average of over 11 children were abused every day in 2023, mostly by relatives or acquaintances. Although some of the cases logged were not necessarily regarding sexual abuse - some only involved abduction and missing person cases - some of the details were still harrowing, including the almost even split among victims. Although about 53% of victims are girls, boys made up the vast majority of victims between the ages of six and 15, while even toddlers were not immune to abuse. And while abusers are mostly male, a significant number of women have also been found to either be directly involved in child sexual abuse or as abettors.

Another worrying statistic was the number of cases reported relative to regions' populations. While the number seems high, it is still believable that Punjab, which accounts for about half of the country's population, can also account for three-quarters of child abuse cases. But it is statistically anomalous that Islamabad accounts for more cases than Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, AJK and G-B combined.

The underreporting that is likely responsible for this variance is a reflection of how 'honour' and other sociocultural factors have eroded the importance of protecting the innocence of children in some areas. While more awareness can address this in the long term, the short-term priority must be for law enforcement nationwide to resolve that child abuse is always unforgivable, and the state must take it upon itself to investigate and prosecute such offences, even if it means going ahead without involving victims when their guardians are unwilling to cooperate.