Karachi: A total of 2,211 cases of child abuse were reported across the country in the first six months of 2022, according to a report released by NGO Sahil on Thursday.
The study titled “Six Months of Sahel’s Cruelty Report” highlighted a shocking situation as an average of 12 children were sexually assaulted every day, compared to 10 in the January to June 2021 report last year. Compared to children.
Major crime categories include child sexual abuse (CSA), kidnapping, missing children, and child marriage.
From January to June this year, 1,170 cases of child sexual abuse, 803 cases of kidnapping, 212 cases of missing children and 26 cases of child marriage were reported across the country.
Of the total reported cases, 1,207 (55%) victims were girls and 1,004 (45%) were boys, the report said.
“In the first six months of this year, 567 boys were victims of rape/gang rape/attempted rape/murder/pornography and abduction. According to the report, 551 girls were raped/gang-rape/attempted rape/murder. / Victims of prostitution and kidnapping crimes.
In the first half of this year, 59 cases of obscenity and 17 cases of obscenity were reported.
Figures show that children aged 6 to 15 years are the most abused, with 715 children aged 11 to 15 years and 401 children aged 6 to 10 years from January to June 2022. Abused.
The statistics highlighted that in 47 percent of the total cases, the perpetrators were acquaintances, 18 percent were strangers, while in 9 percent cases, acquaintances committed crimes against children in association with strangers.
“Acquaintances were involved in 1,050 cases, strangers in 409 cases, relatives in 39 cases, female helpers in 32 cases, religious/school teachers in 50 cases and neighbors in 63 cases,” the report added.
In the first six months of 2022, 71 percent of the total cases were reported from Punjab and 9 percent from the federal capital.
The remaining cases were reported from other provinces, including 15 percent of cases from Sindh, three percent of cases from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 2 percent of cases from Balochistan, Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB).
Of the total reported cases, 48% were from rural areas and 52% from urban areas.
Case registration status shows that 89% of the total reported cases of child abuse were registered with the police.
Research shows that in 26 cases, the complaint was either not registered with the police or the police refused to register a case.
The NGO said it collected data from 81 different national, local and regional newspapers across the four provinces, including Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), AJK and G-B.
