Child abuse in Pakistan is rampant, the number of victims is increadingly reported throughout the country: be it Sindh, Punjab, Balochistan or KP. It is heartrending that one reads everyday about horrific rapes in Pakistan. In recent weeks, a five-year-old girl Alisha was raped alongwith her mother in kashmore, an eight-year-old boy was raped in Kalat District of Balochistan and a four-year-old boy was raped and found dead in Karachi. It seems that our legislators are far from these incidents. No stern action is being taken against this grave exploitation of our children. We have laws with effective punishments but they are unable to stop violents. We have crime preventative institutions but those are paralyzed. We have legislators but are unable to make strategy to cope with child abusers. Eventually, offenders are far from reach of police, court and prison. This reckless behaviour of ours works as inspiration for like-minded. In accordance with claim made by Sahil, a non-governmental organization, 2,846 child abuse cases were reported from all four provinces including Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and Gilgit Baltistan (GB) in 2019. This is shocking for Pakistanis that their properties, health, education and even their children are not safe in the country. Toll of child abuses has been unexpectedly increasing since years. But yet, no proper strategy exists in the country to fight against rapists and child-abusers. Our children are strangled to death, sexually exploited and psychologically tortured. But we are unable to protect them from irrational monsters. Sahil shows diversity in child abuse cases: 778 abductions, 405 missing children, 348 sodomy cases, 279 rape cases, 210 attempted rapes, 205 gang sodomy cases and 115 gang rapes. Moreover A total of 401 cases of child marriages were too recorded by Sahil in 2019. Data portrays that now more than eight children have been abused daily. The gender divide shows that out of the total 2,846 cases of child abuse, 54pc of victims were girls and 46pc were boys between 6-15 year of age. Furthermore, the research shows that children as young as 0-5 years were also sexually exploited. It seems as if there exists no law to prevent such hazardous offenses. Therefore we request legislators to make special laws for dealing with Child abuse, institutions to implement existing laws with high hand and government to take initiatives so as to get society rid of such offenses.
Imtiaz Essa Halepoto
Jamshoro