A total of 2,211 cases of child abuse were reported across the country in the first six months of 2022
A total of 2,211 cases of child abuse were reported across the country in the first six months of 2022, according to a report issued by NGO Sahil on Thursday.
Mubashir Bhutta Advocate ,chairman of MBHRT Mubashir Bhutta Human Rights Trust and Chairman of Human Rights Committee of Pakistan shows serious concern on this large number of human rights violations and child abuse cases. The research titled “Sahil’s Six Months Cruel Numbers Report” highlighted a harrowing situation as 12 children were subjected to sexual abuse on average per day, in comparison to 10 children per day in the last year’s January-June 2021 report.
The major crime categories included child sexual abuse (CSA), abduction, missing children, and child marriages.
As many as 1,170 cases of child sexual abuse, 803 cases of abduction, 212 cases of missing children, and 26 cases of child marriages were reported across the country from January-June this year.
The report showed that out of the total reported cases, 1,207 (55%) of victims were girls and 1,004 (45%) were boys.
“This year in the first six months 567 boys were become victimised by crimes of sodomy/gang sodomy/attempt of sodomy/murder/pornography and abduction. 551 girls were victimised by crimes of rape/gang rape/attempt of rape/murder/pornography and abduction, as per the report.
In the first half of the current year, 59 cases of pornography and 17 cases of incest were reported.
The data revealed that children from the age group 6-15 are most vulnerable to abuse while 715 children from the age bracket of 11-15 years and 401 children from the age brackets of 6-10 were abused from January-June 2022.
The statistics highlighted that the abuser involved in 47 per cent of the total cases were acquaintances, 18% strangers while in 9 per cent of cases acquaintances along with strangers committed crimes against children.
“In 1,050 cases were acquaintances, 409 cases strangers, 39 cases relatives, 32 cases female abettors, 50 cases religious/school teachers and in 63 cases neighbours were involved,” the report further stated.