Pakistan: 32% jump in child sexual abuse cases in 2018
A total of 2,322 child abuse cases were reported across Pakistan in the first six months of 2018, a 32% jump compared to the first half of 2017, a report by NGO Sahil, working for the protection of children against violence, said. The report titled 'Cruel Numbers Report' has data from January-June 2018. 1,764 such incidents were reported last year for the same period.
56% of the victims were girls, 44% were boys
The six-month data showed that 1,298 (56%) of the victims were girls and 1,024 (44%) were boys. The report said over 12 children were abused every day. It said that children in the age brackets of 6-10 and 11-15 are most vulnerable to abuse. Out of the total reported cases, 74% were from rural areas and 26% were from urban areas.
What were the major crime categories?
The NGO report showed that the major crime categories of the reported cases were abduction (542), sodomy (381), rape (360), missing children (236), attempt of rape (224), gang sodomy (167), attempt of sodomy (112), gang rape (92), and 53 cases of child marriages.
89% of cases were registered with the police: Report
Provincial statistics showed that 65% cases were from Punjab, 25% cases from Sindh, 3% cases from Islamabad, 3% cases from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 2% cases from Balochistan, 21 cases from Kashmir and 2 cases were reported from Gilgit-Baltistan. Report statistics also showed that 89% of cases were registered with the police, while in 32 cases the police refused to register the case.
