Child Sexual Abuse

According to the latest report by Sahil, an NGO, it is estimated that every day in Pakistan, nearly eight children become victim of sexual abuse. There were 3.002 reported cases of Child Sexual Abuse in 2013. This figure shows an increase of 7.67% from 2012, when the reported cases were 2,788. Province–wise division shows that 2,003 cases of abuse were reported from Punjab, followed by 583 cases reported from Sindh, then 139 by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 134 from Federal Capital Islamabad and 106 Balochistan. 35 cases were reported from Azad Jammu Kashmir and only 2 cases were reported from Gilgit Baltistan. The number of unreported cases is expected to be quite higher.

The report shows that 2017 girls and 985 boys have been abused. However, there is a phenomenal increase of 23% of abuse of boys in comparison to last year. A total of 6,130 abusers are on record. The largest groups identified were 1,474 acquaintances and 1,067 strangers. Like previous years, the highest percentage of vulnerable age group among both girls and boys was 11-15 years. Statistics show 77.69% of cases of sexual assault took place within enclosed areas whereas 22.31% case took place in open spaces. The time period of abuse shows that 53.76% of the children were abused once. In 17.96% of the cases, children were abused for more than a day. The Urban–Rural divide shows that 57.46% cases were reported from rural areas where as 42.54% of cases were reported from the urban areas. Of all the cases 79.21% were registered with police, 7.89% were unregistered and status of 12.89% cases remained unknown.