According to the report, more than 2,227 children became victims of sexual abuse in Pakistan in the first six months of 2023. The report was issued on Thursday by Sahil, a non-profit organisation, which is working for the protection of children.
The report revealed that on average daily 12 children suffered from sexual abuse in Pakistan from January to June 2203.
The document states that the number of female and male children who suffered from sexual abuse during this period were 1,207 and 1,020 respectively.
Sahil relied on the media reports to compile this data on child molestation, however, it is feared that the actual number of cases is much higher as many of the cases are never reported.
According to Sahil, the number of reported child abuse cases were 4,253 last year and 2,123 of these cases were of sexual in nature.
The provincial coordinator Sahil, Ansar Sajjad Bhatti, told the media that four child marriage cases have been reported in the first half of 2023 while a minor girl child was abducted during the same period. He further added that 22 boys and girls were subjected to sexual abuse in the madrassas.
Bhatti said that children in Pakistan were molested in different places including cars, clinics, hospitals, hotels, factories, prisons, wedding halls, cemeteries, and police stations.
The Sahil representative said that more than 1,648 sexual abuse cases were reported in Punjab, 314 in Sindh, 161 in Islamabad, 24 in Balochistan, four in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and four in Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
Furthermore, Sahil reported 53 incidents of child pornography and 963 incidents where the children’s life was put in danger. 760 of these children died, 265 drowned, 148 were murdered and 144 lost their lives in different accidents.
Sahil suggests setting up a child safety cell and running awareness campaigns to protect children from such incidents in the future.
