June 24, 2007	Sunday	Jamadi-us-Sani 08, 1428

ISLAMABAD, June 23: During the last three months, 345 cases relating to child abuse, kidnapping and missing reported in the twin cities of Pindi and Islamabad, according to data released by the Centre for Missing Children (CMC) on Saturday.

It depicts a dismal and alarming situation of child protection issue in the twin cities and surrounding areas.

The CMC, a project of Lawyers for Human Rights and Legal Aid (LHRLA) supported by Save the Children UK in Islamabad has been providing technical, moral, legal and counselling support to scores of families going through the trauma of lost or abused children. Based on data monitoring and research, it has been observed that male children are more vulnerable than female children as the number of boys abused far exceeds the number of girls abused.

A close look at the data shows that during the period 39 boys got missing as against 11 girls reported missing in the same span of time.

Out of these 39 boys missing 21 were reported to be actually the case of runaways. Similarly as many as 121 boys were subjected to physical and sexual abuse as against 107 female child.

A completely reverse trend is observed in cases of kidnapped and trafficked children. During the period, four boys and one girl were trafficked, while 27 boys and 33 girls were reported kidnapped. So far total 42 children have been recovered, and it makes 39 per cent of the total kidnapped and missing children.