Abuse of 9 children reported daily in 2024

Islamabad:In the year 2024, a total of 3364 child abuse cases have been reported in the newspapers of four provinces and Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), and Gilgit Baltistan (GB), indicating abuse of 9 children per day during the last year.

The alarming statistics were reported in Sahil’s annual ‘Cruel Number 2024’ released on Monday. The report is compiled every year based on the news reports published in the 81 different newspapers. The data indicates that the reported cases includes incidents of child sexual abuse (CSA), abduction, missing children, and child marriages. The gender divide analysis shows that out of the total reported cases of child abuse, 1791 (53 per cent) of victims were girls and 1573 (47 per cent) were boys.

The major crime categories of the reported cases are, abduction 1204, sodomy 566, rape 539, missing children 241, attempt of rape 159, attempt of sodomy 116, gang sodomy 108, gang rape 75, Murder after sexual abuse 56, and 45 cases of child marriages. The abuser's category of Cruel Numbers 2024 indicates that acquaintances are still the group that was found involved in most of the cases followed by strangers and religious teachers.

The geographical divide statistics shows that out of the total 3364 reported cases, 78 per cent cases were reported from Punjab, 12 per cent cases from Sindh, 4 per cent cases from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 4 per cent cases from Islamabad Capital Territory, and 2 per cent cases from Baluchistan, Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), and Gilgit Baltistan (GB). Of the total of reported cases, 93 per cent of cases were registered with the police.

The reported age shows that children are most vulnerable to abuse in the age group of 11-15 years, in which more boys than girls’ victims were reported. Moreover, children as young as 0-5 years are also sexually abused. The cases of child sexual abuse were 1828, with both genders equally victimized. A total of 56 cases of murder after sexual abuse were reported whereas 1204 cases were reported of abduction besides 241 children reported missing.

For the year 2024, Sahil also monitored the cases of violence against women. The data shows 5253 reported cases of GBV from across the country, that includes different forms of violence, such as murder, suicide, abduction, rape, honour killing, and torture. For VAW, 1373 cases of murder, 954 cases of abduction, 685 cases of tortured, and 611 cases of rape and 443 cases of the suicide were reported. The data also shows that the age group of 21-30 years is continuously the most vulnerable to such abuse.

Again, the abusers involved in 34 per cent of the cases were acquaintances, 13 per cent cases were husband, 12 per cent cases were strangers. Provincial divide shows that 74 per cent of the total cases reported from Punjab, 15 per cent from the Sindh, 7 per cent cases from KPK, 2 per cent cases from ICT, and 2 per cent cases from Baluchistan, AJK & GB.