Child sexual abuse continues to persist despite govt claims: study

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Sahil, an organisation working in alleviating the suffering of those children who fall victim to sexual abuse published ‘Cruel Numbers 2017,’ on Wednesday, a report documenting data collected during last year.

Statistics presented in the document show that child sexual abuse continued to persist despite government claims otherwise.

A total of 3,445 cases of child sexual abuse incidents were reported in newspapers across the country, which shows an annual increase of 694 cases, according to the report.

Girls constituted a majority of child sexual abuse victims at 60%. The document also revealed that children between the 6-10 and 11-15 years of age were most vulnerable to sexual abuse.

Missing children cases were standing at 517, rape at 467, sodomy at 366, attempted rape at 206, gang sodomy at 180, gang rape at 158 and early marriage at 109.

Over 2017, 1,746 cases of child sexual abuse alone (excluding cases of abduction, child marriage and missing children) were reported, the document stated.

1,229 cases of abduction were reported across newspapers in 2017. Of these, 81% victims were girls, the report added.

The report states that the incidence of murder following sexual abuse has increased in 2016-17. 109 cases of murder after sexual abuse were reported in 2017. The corresponding number for 2016 stood at 100, the report read.

5,284 individuals suspected of being involved in child sexual abuse were identified over the year.

The highest incidence of child sexual abuse was recorded across Punjab at 2,168. Sindh, Balochistan, Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), Azad Jammu & Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan (GB) followed at 933, 139, 112, 78, 12, 3 respectively.