ISLAMABAD: Incidents of child sexual abuse increased by 14pc in the first half of 2020 compared to the same period the year prior, according to a report by the NGO Sahil released on Tuesday.

The organisation, which has worked on child protection against sexual abuse since 1996, blamed the coronavirus pandemic for the increase in cases, arguing that children were home and more than 55pc of their abusers were acquaintances.

The report, titled Sahil’s Six Months Cruel Numbers Report, stated that 1,489 cases of child abuse were reported between January and June 2020 from all four provinces, Islamabad Capital Territory, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.

Their data revealed that more than eight children were abused every day in the first six months of the year.

The main categories of the reported cases were abduction (331), sodomy (233), missing children (168), rape (160), attempted rape (134), gang sodomy (104), attempted sodomy (93), gang rape (69) and child marriage (59). There were also 38 cases of murder following sexual abuse.

The statistics show that of the total number of cases, 53pc of the victims were girls and 47pc were boys.

In addition, 490 victims were between the ages of 11 and 15 and 331 were between the ages of six and 10.

The report said that 57pc of the cases were reported in Punjab, 32pc in Sindh and 6pc in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Islamabad reported more than 35 cases, Balochistan reported 22, AJK reported 10 and GB reported one case.

Rural areas reported 62pc of the cases and urban areas reported 38pc.

The data also showed that 90pc of the cases were registered with the police; the registration status of 135 cases was not mentioned in newspapers, seven cases were not registered with police and in seven cases, the police refused to register cases.

The report said 28pc of the cases occurred at the home of perpetrators who were an acquaintance, 11pc in the victim’s home, 8pc in the streets and 4pc in fields. Cases of abuse were reported from another 11 places.

Out of the total number of reported cases, 59pc of perpetrators were acquaintances, 10pc were strangers and another 6pc with acquaintances with strangers.

It said that neighbours, relatives, maulvis, teachers, police and shopkeepers are also usually known to the victims, while close blood relatives are also involved in sexually assaulting children.

In 16pc of the cases, the abusers were not mentioned in newspapers.

Sahil Senior Programme Officer Waqas Hameed told Dawn that data was collected from news published in 84 newspapers across the country, and the actual number of cases could be much higher because not every incident is reported in the news.

He said 1,304 cases of child sexual abuse were reported in the first six months of 2019, “so the number of cases has increased by 14pc as compared to the first six months of 2019”.

To a question, Mr Hameed said one possible reason for the increase was the closure of schools and workplaces because of the coronavirus, because of which children were restricted to their homes.

More than 55pc, or 822, perpetrators of child sexual abuse were acquaintances of their victims and were able to meet children frequently and without restrictions.

Published in Dawn, August 26th, 2020