August 15, 2007	Wednesday	Sha’aban 1, 1428

ISLAMABAD, Aug 14: A country-wide surge in child sexual abuse has been witnessed during the last three months with the daily toll of cases now standing at 7 over the first quarter’s 5. According to Sahil, an Islamabad-based civil society organisation working against child sex abuse, the national rate recorded an increase of 24 per cent during this period.

The Sahil report is based on data collected from 56 local and national newspapers. It shows that 815 cases of child sexual abuse were reported during April-June compared to 500 during January-March — an increase of 315 cases in just 90 days. Among the abused children the number of girls was more than double of the boys. In all 1,315 children were reportedly abused. Of them the number of girls was 891 (68 per cent) against 424 boys (32 per cent). The nature of abuse ranged from abduction, rape and sodomy to gang rape and gang sodomy.

The figures for the capital territory of Islamabad, the most literate area of the country, are chilling at 6.15 percent of the total. Among 555 children abducted, 430 were girls and 125 boys. The majority of the abusers, 66 percent, were acquaintances of the victims followed by strangers, 18 per cent. Details of the report showed no one could be trusted with the child as among the abusers were immediate family members, other relatives, friends, neighbours, maulvis, teachers, drivers, tailors, doctors, shopkeepers, policemen, robbers, prisoners, spiritual healers and landlords.

The most vulnerable age group for child sexual abuse was different for boys and girls. For boys it was between 6 to 10 years — 28 per cent, and 11 to 15 years — 32 percent. Twenty- two per cent of the girls who were abused belonged to the age group of 11 to 15 yeas while 13 percent of them were the 16-18 years age group.

More than half of the cases, 56.5 percent, were reported from Punjab followed by Sindh 32.7 percent, Islamabad 6.15 percent, NWFP 3.5 percent and Balochistan 1.1 percent.

The rural-urban divide in abuse cases is also reflective of the social conditions. Rural children seem to be more vulnerable to abuse as some 66 per cent (875) cases were reported from rural areas and 34 per cent (440) from the urban.

The report says that the place of abuse is not mentioned in almost half of the cases. But estimates figure around one-fifth occurring at the abusers’ place, 15.5 per cent in the victim’s place in the absence of other family members or by force. Five children out of each hundred were abused in the streets and just a little less in fields. One out of every ten children was either abused in a nearby woods or mosque, some deserted place, hotel or workshop, jail, inside a car, graveyard, internet cafe, under- construction house, highway, stream, school, hospital, office, shelter home, brothel and shrine. For the vulnerable children no place was safe indeed.

The report says more than half of the children were abused once. In one-third of the cases an unidentified time period of abuse has been recorded. Almost 3.4 per cent children were abused for a period of one day, 3.5 percent for one week and 2.8 per cent for more than a week and till months.

The names of the victims have been reported in 64 percent cases while in 26 per cent cases there is no identification of the victim. The name and picture of the victim is provided in one out of ten cases. In a few cases only the picture is given. Of the cases reported in the media, 78 per cent were registered with the police, 10 per cent were unregistered. The status of 11.5 per cent cases is not stated in these reports.