Heal someone’s world

It is important to listen when young voices like that of Mehreen Kasana speak out against child abuse.

In 2009, about three Pakistani children were sexually abused every day. A total of 2,012 reported cases of child sexual abuse were recorded from all over the country. To lend perspective to the figure revealed last year by the non-government organisation Sahil, let me add some numbers. Child abuse is a global phenomenon. The Human Rights Watch World Report 2008 says that 150 million girls and 73 million boys around the world have experienced rape or other sexual violence. Most of it was perpetrated by members of their own family. The statistic does not necessarily mean there were more girls abused, although that is probable; it could indicate that many cases of abuse against boys go unreported, ironically for reasons of pride and honour.

Coming back to Pakistan and the Sahil report of last year, the type of abusers with the highest percentage was acquaintances at 81 per cent. The most vulnerable age group is from 11 to 15 years, while the second highest is 6 to 10. As these figures are those reported in newspapers, we cannot be sure of how many cases go unreported to the police, media, or even guardians. Due to the shame attached to the act, abused children commonly blame themselves and remain silent. Given that, look again at the figure — 28 per cent of child abuse cases reported in Pakistan were of rape and sodomy. Fifteen per cent of the children were gang raped and gang sodomised.

I began thinking of this because of an e-campaign against child abuse that was meant to last till December 6. I came to know of the project while following the tweets of a young American Pakistani blogger — as she describes herself — named Mehreen Kasana. On Twitter, not only did she take on and down a few anti-activist bullies, she advised a well-known journalist on how to participate in the campaign and wrote about her own contribution. She spent the day at a government school teaching children how to draw and went on to say, “help children to draw, write and read. If they've been abused, give them the time and space for catharsis. You can heal someone's world.”

Now I realise the limitations of Twitter, and I understand the problem with preaching to the choir and so on, but what I know from experience is that child abuse does not know class, race or religion. It is important to listen when young voices like that of Mehreen Kasana speak out against it. We all know that ‘no’ is the most frequently used word in the English language, but the way the world is progressing, it seems that ‘no’ may soon be ousted by ‘whatever.’ I find it heartening to see a young person choose the former.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 8^th, 2010.