Child abuse is a serious problem in Pakistan, affecting a significant number of children across the country. Child abuse can take many forms, including physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, neglect, and exploitation. Children from marginalized communities, such as those living in poverty or those from ethnic and religious minorities, are particularly vulnerable to abuse.
According to a study conducted by the Ministry of Human Rights in collaboration with UNICEF, more than 11,000 cases of child abuse were reported in Pakistan in 2018, although the actual number of cases is likely much higher due to underreporting and inadequate documentation. Child abuse is often perpetrated by family members, including parents, step-parents, and other relatives, as well as teachers, religious leaders, and others in positions of authority.
Uzma’s death should be that pivotal moment when things change. Mubashir Bhutta Advocate, chairman of MBHRT Mubashir Bhutta Human Rights Trust and Chairman of Human Rights Committee of Pakistan shows serious concern on this barbarian act and demand the government to take serious and practical efforts to eliminate human rights violations and so also protect the family of victim The story that unfolded was so dark it not only enraged and grieved people across Pakistan, it also started a much-needed discussion on the topic that despite being very important and frequently in news is apparently of so little importance to most people embroiled in their diurnal battles, it has never really received the importance it deserves. Rampant is violence on children and teenagers employed in domestic service, titled maids and servants in an age where political correctness has forced people to cloak their blatant condensation for the have-nots in words that flimsily hide the stark lines that divide society in binaries of who is to be treated well, and who is to treated worse than an animal. The cruelty that takes place in plain sight, the ruthlessness that is so commonplace it is almost invisible, the apathy that is so obvious it is as if lit by garish neon lights.
In a society where to keep underage children as domestic help is against the law but is still a common practice, the outrage over Uzma’s death should be that pivotal moment when things change. But how do you teach someone to not be cruel to a child whose familial destitution compelling her or him to say a hurried goodbye to a childhood unlived force her or him into a life of labour that despite being inside a house is not better than that of a life being wasted in a prison for hardened criminals?
in the last week of January 2019, Pakistan saw images of the dead body of a teenager who worked as domestic help in a house in Allama Iqbal Town, Lahore. The outrage was tremendous, and because of the intensive media coverage of the body of a girl, almost a child, found in a drain, a case clearly of torture and manslaughter, the quick investigation led to the arrest of one perpetrator and her two accomplices.
Rahim Yar Khan: Another innocent little girl has been sexually assaulted in Rahim Yar Khan. Please raise your voice for Justice for Jennifer.
Mubashir Bhutta Advocate, chairman of MBHRT Mubashir Bhutta Human Rights Trust and Chairman of Human Rights Committee of Pakistan shows serious concern on this barbarian act of society and demand the government to take serious and practical efforts to eliminate human rights violations The crime against children has been increasing and somehow the Government has failed to control this heinous crime.
Jennifer, a ten-year-old girl was found brutally raped and killed from the fields of sugar cane.
The body was found in her school uniform from Mouza Chandra Wali of Janpur, Rahim Yar Khan.
innocent Christian girl, Jennifer, has been sexually assaulted The body of a nearly 10-year-old girl in school uniform has been recovered from Mouza Chandra Wali of Janpur, Rahim Yar Khan, Pakistan from the crop of Kamad. To prevent this, we need to raise our voice
Little Jennifer lost her life to another inhuman act of a child abuser.
There will always be a Zainab and a Jennifer unless these child abusers and severely punished with no mercy.
Innocent little boys and girls will go through these brutal tortures regardless of age, color, caste, and religion if these criminals are not severely punished. These child abusers deserve no mercy.
The World Report on Violence and Health, released by the World Health Organization (WHO) (1), presented the issue of violence against children as a public-health problem that has a global magnitude. In the same year (2002), the member nations of the United Nations (UN) pledged to meet eight Millennium Development Goals by 2015 (2). Six of these goals are directly related to children, and all are closely linked to the commitment made at the Special Session on Children of the UN General Assembly in 2002 that all governments would work to promote and protect the rights of every child (3).
Mubashir Bhutta Advocate ,chairman of MBHRT Mubashir Bhutta Human Rights Trust and Chairman of Human Rights Committee of Pakistan shows serious concern on this human rights violations and express views that this report is eye opener for our society and government has to tackle this issue and it is need of practical effort.s WHO defines violence as “The intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community that either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment or deprivation”(1). This definition captures the range of potential and actual violence perpetuated on people, including children, the most vulnerable group. For example, an estimated 57,000 deaths have been attributed to homicide among children aged less than 15 years in 2000 (3). The global estimates of child homicide suggest that infants and very young children, aged 0-4 year(s), are at the highest risk, while children in lower-income countries are at a higher risk compared to those in high-income countries. The highest rates of homicide for children aged less than five years are in the African Region (AFRO) at 17.9 per 100,000 for boys and 12.7 per 100,000 for girls (3).
Violence against children occurs in different forms (physical, sexual, neglect, emotional and psychological) and at multiple levels (individual, household, institutional, and societal). A WHO Consultation on Child Abuse Prevention recognized violence against children as a growing public-health and development problem and defined child abuse as “Child abuse and maltreatment constitutes all forms of physical and/or emotional ill-treatment, sexual abuse, neglect or negligent treatment or commercial or other exploitation, resulting in actual or potential harm to the child’s health, survival, development or dignity in the context of a relationship of responsibility, trust or power” (3). Establishing the precise magnitude of child abuse for any given country is very difficult. Even in wealthy countries, recognizing and measuring the incidence of fatal violence such as infanticide is problematic due to underreporting and misclassification of deaths. The situation in developing countries is even more challenging due to a mix of poor health-information systems, faulty legal and police structures, and sociocultural stigma (3). Data on non-fatal abuse is even harder to collect because of different legal and cultural definitions of abuse and neglect across countries. Such cases are more underreported even in countries where mandatory reporting mechanisms exist.
Violence against children occurs throughout the world, including South Asia, which has 23% of the world’s population and is one of the world’s poorest regions (4). In countries, like India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, and Pakistan, child labour, child sexual abuse and prostitution, child trafficking and homelessness are commonly reported issues. The largest number of working children in the world—between 40 and 115 million child workers aged 5-14 years—are found in India (5). Data from a 1995 Bangladesh survey of children aged 10-15 years in 150 villages revealed that 21% were in the labour force (6).
Pakistan is a developing country in South Asia with a population of 153 million and a per-capita gross national income of US$ 420 (4). Of the total population, 43% are children aged less than 15 years (7), and according to the World Bank (4), poverty remains a serious concern in Pakistan, with 33% of the population living under the poverty-line, with a literacy rate of 44%. Pakistan ranks 138 on the Human Development Index (8). Pakistan is struggling to make its general and specific environment conducive for meaningful and sustainable advancement in terms of all aspects of human development. Importantly, Pakistan ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990.
The paper examines the situation of violence against children in Pakistan. Its overall goal is to assess the current state of knowledge on violence against children in the country. The specific objectives are to conduct a systematic review of the literature on violence against children, to understand the nature and context of this problem, to estimate the magnitude of violence against children in Pakistan as a public-health problem, and to define critical gaps in existing knowledge for public-health research and policy.
Religious orthodoxy, superstitious beliefs, coupled with mass illiteracy can pave the way for exploitation in society. One such startling case of child abuse, fuelled by religious extremism, comes from the Islamic State of Pakistan. Children suffering from microcephaly, a rare neurological disorder, are reduced to the status of animals in Pakistan. Often referred to as ‘chuhas’ or rats by people, these children are characterised by abnormally small heads, round jaws, and disfigured foreheads.
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 and urge the government to make special laws to protect these innocent children’s and humans
In the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the microcephalic children find refuge at the shrine of Shah Daula in Varedia, Gujarat. They are revered as divine creatures and simultaneously stripped of their human dignity. Reportedly, infertile from across the country flock to the shrine in the hopes of having a normal baby. Other pilgrims bring in their sick infants and hope of their bright health conditions in the future. The shrine of Shah Daula is considered as the abode of fertility for women.
Child abuse under the garb of magical ‘fertility’
Prayers are supposedly answered only under one atrocious condition – the women must donate their first child to the shrine. It is believed that otherwise subsequent children will be born with deformities. Hence, the first child must serve as one of the ‘rats of Shah Daula’. As per reports, these children are not allowed to meet their parents. They are then subjected to ‘artificial microcephaly’ wherein an iron band is placed on their head to prevent the normal growth of the cranium.
These unfortunate children are draped in green cloaks and forced to beg around the shrine. Since pilgrims live under the notion that ignoring them may invite doom, they fill the begging bowls of children with cash and coins. The children, devoid of education and parental patronage, are left at the mercy of the administration of the shrine. Reportedly, criminals in Pakistan have also been creating ‘artificial rats’ with the sinister objective of minting money. The children are coerced into begging on the streets, with begging bowls in their hands.
The History of the Shrine
The historical background of the shrine sheds light on the practice of child abuse that continues to this day. As per reports, Shah Daula who was supposedly fond of animals would put helmets on the heads of children for decorative purposes. He had a penchant for abnormal children and believed that they were human beings of different abilities. Following the death of the Sufi saint, the deformed children were associated with him and fabricated tales were weaved to justify the practice.
Keeping aside the tradition of abuse, a scientific assessment of the abnormality leads us to the religious practices in Islam that dictates the way of life in the conservative society of Pakistan. The root cause, as understood, behind the problem is the rampant rate of inbreeding or cousin marriages. An alarming absence of medical care, institutions to serve differently-abled children and the associated ignorance have trapped the children of Shah Daula into a life of misery.
Pakistani and International Laws
As per Section 328 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), deserting a child below the age of 12 years by parents is a crime. At the shrine of Shah Daula, the first child of such devotees are abandoned on the first or the second day of their birth. Besides, Section 332 and 335 punishes disfiguring a functional organ of any individual but the business of ‘artificial microcephaly’ goes unabated under the pretext of making infertile women fertile. Moreover, forcing children into begging is punishable with a maximum of 5 years of imprisonment and a fine of PKR 1,00,000 under Section 36 of the Punjab Destitute and Neglected Children Act 2004.
Although Pakistan is a member nation of the United Nations and liable under Sections 23 and 37 of the United Nations Convention on Rights of the Child 1990 (UNCRC) to prevent the child abuse going unabated under the garb of ‘tradition’, little or no efforts have been made in this regard. Publish by pindia, Lack of consciousness amongst the public regarding human rights abuse, the complicity of governmental bodies, and the Council of Islamic Ideology needs to be held accountable.