PESHAWAR, Jan 2: Sharp increase in violence against children was reported during the year-2003 as 1,000 physical and 826 cases of sexual abuse were reported, revealed a research conducted by Madadgaar.
Madadgaar, a joint venture of Lawyers for Human Rights and Legal Aid (LHRLA) and UNICEF, released its research report that incidents of violence against children were on the rise in the country and the society as a whole had failed to protect them.
The breakdown of collected data showed that out of total reported 1,826 cases, 623 cases of child murder, both boys and girls, 383 cases of rape, 277 cases of sodomy, 254 cases of severe injuries, 110 cases of attempted rape or sodomy and 55 cases of torture were reported.
The media also reported 66 extremely brutal cases of rape or sodomy in which the girl or boy has also been killed after sexual violence. Madadgaar documented all the cases that were published in newspapers or were otherwise acknowledged, to collect information regarding human rights violation in the country, especially against children and women.
The breakdown of collected cases of physical abuse showed that 74 cases were reported in January, 71 in February, 87 in March, 93 in April, 112 in May, 108 in June, 67 in July, 90 cases in August, 80 in September, 99 in October, 74 in November and 45 cases of physical abuse were reported in the December 2003.
The report pointed out that during the last year 826 children became the victim of sexual abuse and the quantum of sexual violence cases was over 50 cases in a month. In January 52 cases of sexual violence were reported, in February 69, in March 102, in April 79, in May 88, in June 91, in July 59, in August 81, in September 87, in October 53, in November 36 and in
December 29 sexual violence cases were reported. It informed that the child sexual abuse was one of the least acknowledged and least explored form of child abuses in Pakistan.
This situation may perhaps be a result of the taboo attached to the issue, and because such matters continue to be viewed as domestic affairs and only in cases of cruelty and violence does the media report cases.
It was also observed that unfortunately police has been failed to take immediate action against the perpetrators of child abuse. It further revealed that male child was more vulnerable than female child as out of 1,826 cases of abuse, 975 were committed against minor boys while the rest 851 were against girls. The survey added that children are vulnerable to all forms of abuse because they are less powerful and more nave. Access to children is relatively easy and adults have many opportunities to abuse children by virtue of their more powerful positions.
The print media reports also mentioned that commercial sexual exploitation of children is also increasing as well as an alarming trend in Pakistani society.
The research divulged that poor economic conditions, poverty, unemployment, the low status of girls, lack of education and awareness, eroticisation of children through Internet, inadequate legislation and poor law enforcement all contribute to the increasing cases of violence against children.
The data showed that most of the child abuse cases were reported in Punjab 1087, in Sindh 588 cases, in NWFP 101 and in Balochistan 50 cases of violence were reported.
The report also highlighted that during the last year 252 cases of child abuse were reported in Karachi, 175 in Lahore, 50 in Peshawar, 24 in Quetta, 84 in Multan, 52 in Gujranwala, 56 in Hyderabad, 39 in Rawalpindi, 40 in Sargodha, 23 in Sukkur, 39 in Vehari, 35 in Faisalabad, 29 in Larkana and 20 cases in Bahwalpur.
The research revealed that in 479 cases of child abuse the place of abuse was victims own house while in 246 cases it was abusers home. The other abuse places that were identified in the research were farms, fields, hospitals, schools, madarssah, shops and police stations. -PPI