Suffer little children

Criminal justice system is far from being child-friendly & there is paucity of empirical data relative to child abuse

For a country that professes a love of children as loud and long as it does, Pakistan is lamentably poor at protecting them from sexual abuse. Paedophilia is culturally institutionalised in some sections of society, regarded as a norm, and where that is not the case, children of both sexes are abused increasingly often. The Kasur case, which very briefly pricked the national conscience in August has now faded from view much as was expected, and a new study entitled “The State of Children in Pakistan” tells little that was not already well known. The study was conducted by the Children’s Complaint Office in Islamabad and funded by Unicef. It once again reiterates the poverty of capacity, political will and an abject failure to implement standing legislation. The criminal justice system is far from being child-friendly and there is a paucity of empirical data relative to child abuse. What is equally clear is that the reporting of cases of child abuse is steadily rising year on year, but this is in all probability a reflection of the development of a climate of disclosure rather than an actual rise in the incidence of abuse.

No government, judicial or law-enforcement entity or agency emerges with credit from the report. The child rights NGO Sahil has once again done much of the legwork that underpins the report, which shows an increase of 17 per cent in reported cases over the 2013 reporting year. Although the report is to a degree a statement, yet again of the blindingly obvious, it is one that bears repeating again and again, louder and more forcefully every time until there is such a din that the ossified and unwilling state finally gets dragged into a state of awareness and responsibility. Hiding behind culture has to be made unacceptable, and cultural norms themselves must be challenged at every juncture. Just because a section of society has abused young boys for centuries does not mean that it is to be allowed to abuse them in perpetuity. Children are unsafe in school, the home and the workplace. Who cares? Few, seemingly.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 29^th, 2015.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.