essay on child abuse in pakistan

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Child abuse in Pakistan  

Violence against children occurs in different forms like Physical, Sexual, Neglect, Emotional, and psychological in multiple ways violation of a child is happening authenticity. And WHO (World Health Organization), consultation on child abuse prevention recognized violence against children as a growing Public-Health and development problem, defined as child abuse and mistreatment constitute physical and emotional ill-treatment, sexual abuse, negligent treatment, and potential harm to the child’s health, survival, development dignity in the context of a relationship of responsibility, trust or power. As Child Abuse is widely prevalent but rarely recognized as a social problem in Pakistan ( According to the international society prevention of Child Abuse (ISPCAN), overall, 41.69 percentage respondents have been sexually abused in one and another form in the recent year.

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Thus recently published retrospective study by Abbas and Jabeen 2020 on the prevalence of Child abuse in Pakistan was conducted with an equal number of male and female respondents 41 percent (44 % Males and 39 % females) of respondents reported facing at least one form of sexual abuse during childhood. Among many factors of the prevailing situation, The most pertinent is a poor parent-child relationship in

Pakistan is one of the leading countries with Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) in the world where around 550,000 (0.55 million) children are abused annually.

Child abuse is a serious problem in Pakistan that often goes unpunished however, there are laws in place that for severe. Penalties for those who are convicted of abusing children. These penalties range from imprisonment to the death of sentence and they provide some measure of justice for victims and their facilities.

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Child Sexual Abuse in Pakistan: Evidence-informed Policy Framework

• Research Article
• Published: 20 September 2021
• Volume 4 , pages 537–553, ( 2021 )

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• Syed Saleem Abbas   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-1947-5770 1  

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Abbas, S. S., & Jabeen, T. (2020). Prevalence of child abuse among the university students: A retrospective cross-sectional study in University of the Punjab, Pakistan. International Quarterly of Community Health Education, 40 (2), 125–134.

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Abbas, S.S. Child Sexual Abuse in Pakistan: Evidence-informed Policy Framework. Int. Journal on Child Malt. 4 , 537–553 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42448-021-00092-8

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Accepted : 30 August 2021

Published : 20 September 2021

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s42448-021-00092-8

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Tackling child abuse in Pakistan 

Child abuse is now seen as one of the most important challenges facing Pakistan, following high profile cases in recent years, including the rape and murder of six-year-old Zainab Ansari in 2018. Indeed, it was this case that prompted Dr Karim to begin critical research into the issue.

“Child abuse happens in all societies, but it’s now finally being talked about in Pakistan after many years of being a taboo subject,” she says. “However, there is very little research on the issue, so policy makers don’t have the academic findings on which to base their decisions. Despite it being a really sensitive and challenging subject, coming from a Pakistani British background, and with a PhD in historic child abuse, I realised I could help fill that gap.”

Dr Samina Karim, Assistant Professor in Social Work from the University of Bradford, is exploring how different professions respond to the challenge of child abuse in Pakistan. Working with representatives from Pakistan, she recruited participants from key professional groups including religious scholars, teachers from state schools, community health workers, medical hospital staff, special educational needs teachers, police, lawyers, community sports professionals, media professionals and religious minorities.

Samina Karim

Using grant funding from the University, she has conducted focus groups with over 300 participants from ten different professions, discussing what they understand of child abuse, their attitudes to it and their professional practice. Each participant completed a questionnaire which captured their knowledge and attitudes towards child abuse and how this in turn was reflected within their professional practice. The groups then discussed the challenges they faced in their profession and what potential solutions there might be.

Based on the findings from this research, Dr Karim has begun more in-depth studies to understand issues relating to the reporting of abuse and the barriers present in terms of the implementation of child protection legislation. Having employed research assistants based in Pakistan, she is currently exploring the views of lawyers and doctors to develop greater clarity on these topics. So far, more than 600 professionals have taken part and the work is ongoing.

“Pakistan does have legislation on the statute books to tackle child abuse, but it’s not always being enforced,” explains Dr Karim. “We wanted to understand why so few cases reach the police and even fewer make it to court.”

The barriers Dr Karim has identified so far range from cultural attitudes to a lack of effective interagency working. Also, because there are often conflicts between federal and provincial law, it can be difficult to successfully bring forward cases. “The implementation of child protection legislation across the criminal justice system is very dependent on interpretation and that often results in cases not being prosecuted or failing in the courts,” says Dr Karim. As part of her study into the legal barriers to prosecution, she is comparing federal and provincial laws from the Punjab province, which has the highest reported cases of child sexual abuse in Pakistan.

Reporting the cases…

Doctors are often the first to see injuries caused by sexual abuse and so are a vital step in ensuring cases come to light. Dr Karim’s work with 300+ hospital based doctors aims to determine how many of them are currently reporting any concerns, and if not, why not. Barriers identified to date include a reluctance to get involved in what are seen as ‘family matters’ or subject a family to the culturally perceived ‘shame’ of making sexual abuse in particular, public. Reporting processes also remain unclear within institutions and facilities, which adds to concerns.

The difficulties of bringing successful criminal prosecutions also have a detrimental impact on reporting by frontline medical staff, according to Dr Karim. “We found that many doctors who did report subsequently saw little action taken and as a result, said they would be less likely to highlight potential cases in future”.

Many professional groups are trying to improve how they respond to the abuse of children in Pakistan and are calling on Dr Karim’s expertise to help them do this. She was recently a keynote speaker at a conference on child abuse organised jointly by the Abbottabad University of Science and Technology and police forces of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) province.

“It’s encouraging to see so many professional groups actively looking to improve how child abuse is dealt with in Pakistan,” says Dr Karim. “We hope that through the research we’re carrying out, we can help provide an evidence base to inform changes in the law or in professional guidelines, to ensure that victims receive the support they need and the justice they deserve.”

View Samina Karim's staff profile.

This work was funded through the Research England Quality-Related (QR) Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF)   allocation to support research that addresses the challenges faced by developing countries.

Child abuse in Pakistan: A qualitative study of knowledge, attitudes and practice amongst health professionals

Affiliations.

• 1 Whiston Hospital, Warrington Road, Prescot, Liverpool, L35 5DR, UK. Electronic address: [email protected].
• 2 Department of Emergency Medicine, Aga Khan University, P O Box 3500, Stadium Road, Karachi, Pakistan. Electronic address: [email protected].
• 3 Department of Emergency Medicine, Aga Khan University, P O Box 3500, Stadium Road, Karachi, Pakistan. Electronic address: [email protected].
• 4 Department of Emergency Medicine, Critical Creative Innovative Thinking (CCIT), Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan. Electronic address: [email protected].
• 5 Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University, Boston, USA. Electronic address: [email protected].
• 6 International Centre for Maternal and Child Health, Akademiska Sjukhuset, University of Uppsala, MTC-huset, Dag Hammarskjölds väg 14B, 752 37, Uppsala, Sweden; Department of Paediatrics, Länssjukhuset Gävle-Sandviken, 801 87, Gävle, Sweden; Department of Child Health, Aga Khan University, Stadium Road, 74800, Karachi, Pakistan. Electronic address: [email protected].
• PMID: 30447502
• DOI: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2018.10.008

Child abuse is a global problem and pervades all cultures and socio-economic strata. The effects can be profound and life altering for victims. There is substantial literature from high income countries about signs of abuse, but a dearth of data from low and middle income countries like Pakistan. Healthcare professionals (HCP) are ideally placed to detect abuse, but, to inform interventions, an understanding of their experiences, training needs and cultural beliefs is needed. This study aimed to: (1) Explore the challenges that HCP face when managing cases of abuse; (2) Explore cultural beliefs and understand how these shape practice and (3) Identify training needs. A qualitative study using a phenomenological design was conducted. In-depth interviews were conducted with doctors, nurses and security staff in the emergency department of a large private hospital in Pakistan (n = 15). Interviews were undertaken in Urdu, translated into English and analysed using an inductive thematic approach. Multiple challenges were identified. The process of referral to legal services was poorly understood and further training and guidelines was suggested by participants. As the legal system in Pakistan does not allow HCP to keep potentially abused patients in their custody, they felt restricted in their ability to advocate and concerned about the safety of both the identified children and themselves. HCP have potential to detect abuse early; however, in Pakistan there are numerous challenges. HCP require support through training, as well as clear institutional frameworks and legal support to undertake this role.

Keywords: Child abuse; Health care professionals; Pakistan.

Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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• Pakistan / epidemiology
• Qualitative Research

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Pakistan passes law against child abuse in wake of Zainab Ansari case

The rape and murder of the seven-year-old shocked the nation in 2018, spurring new legislation

Pakistan’s parliament passed a new law against child abuse, two years after the rape and murder of a seven-year-old girl that shocked the country.

The nation’s first national child abuse law will introduce a penalty of life imprisonment for child abuse, Pakistan’s human rights minister, Shireen Mazari, said on Wednesday.

It follows the death of Zainab Ansari, whose body was found in a rubbish skip in Kasur district near the eastern city of Lahore in 2018, sparking large protests and accusations of negligence by authorities.

There had been reports of a number of missing children in the district since 2015, when authorities uncovered what they said was a paedophile ring linked to a prominent local family.

Imran Ali, 24, was convicted over the death of Zainab , and has also been linked to death of seven other girls.

Mazari tweeted that the bill’s passage had been “a long struggle” as she thanked colleagues for helping it clear numerous hurdles.

“Finally, we have emerged today successful, getting the Zainab Alert Bill sailed through the national assembly with a majority of votes,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone.

An amended version of the bill cleared Pakistan’s legislative assembly late on Wednesday after being passed by the upper house earlier this year. It is expected to receive the formal assent of the president in the coming days.

Zainab’s case triggered debate in Pakistan over whether to teach children how to guard against sex abuse, a taboo subject in the Muslim-majority nation.

Nearly 10 cases of child abuse a day are reported in Pakistan, with girls disproportionately affected, according to Sahil, an organisation that works on child protection.

The law requires police to register a case within two hours of a child’s parents reporting them missing.

It includes measures to speed up the process, including the establishment of a dedicated helpline and a new agency to issue alerts for a missing child.

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Youth Parliament Pakistan

The Lingering Menace of Child Abuse in Pakistan!

The views expressed in the Youth Parliament Pakistan® (YPP) blogs are solely those of the blogger/author/Member Youth Parliament Pakistan® (MYP) and do not represent the views of PILDAT (Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency) or YPP itself. PILDAT and YPP do not endorse or promote any particular political ideology, agenda, or opinion expressed in the blogs. The blogs are intended to encourage critical thinking and constructive dialogue on issues of public interest among young people in Pakistan.

Child abuse is an unreported but an alarming issue in every civilized society. Half of the children across the world are exposed to violence and survivors’ trauma, but the consequences of child labour are usually obscured from the public view. In this era of globalization, there is a need for designating time to educate and empower the most vulnerable segments of society – children against abuse from strangers and their teachers and relatives. Decades of research shows how negative childhood events such as abuse or neglect can have a detrimental impact on a person’s long term physical and mental health. It has been linked to rapid ageing, chronic diseases and even premature deaths. Pakistan has its history of reacting to problems ex post facto. Child abuse is widely prevalent but rarely recognized as a social problem in Pakistan.

According to International Society prevention of child abuse (ISPCAN), overall, 41.69% respondents were sexually abused with one or another form in the recent years. Experience of child abuse is reported more frequently by boys than girls. According to Sahil report, the total number of reported child abuse cases across the country jumped to 2,960 in 2020 from 2486 cases in 2019, showing an increase of 4%. More than 8 children in Pakistan were abused daily on average in the year 2020, according to data compiled by Sahil on child sexual abuse cases reported in national newspapers. What is more, according to a recently published retrospective study by Abbas and Jabeen (2020) on prevalence of child abuse in Pakistan conducted with equal number of male and female respondents 41% (44% males and 39% females) of respondents reported facing at least one form of sexual abuse during childhood. Among many factors for the prevailing situation, the most pertinent is poor parent- child relationship. We live in a society where fear and cultural taboos make it difficult to uncover cases of abuse. Parents’ unwillingness to subject their children to the medico-legal process is also a deterrent. A lack of support from family members, friends and neighbors or the community leads to the isolation of victim, making him hesitant to share his experience about his abuser. Besides other factors responsible for child abuse are socio-economic stresses; unemployment, low self-confidence and feelings of incompetence, loneliness, and psychological unrest.

Even before Zainab case, the child sexual abuse was widely prevalent but rarely reported. Zainab case accentuated the need to cure menace of child abuse. After the 18th amendment in the constitution of Pakistan (1973) and completion of devolution process in 2011, the provinces are responsible for legislation and policy making regarding protection of children. Government of Pakistan had been taking commendable steps regarding the prevention of child abuse for some time, but later on it all went in vain. Zainab Alert Response and Recovery Agency (ZARRA) was to be established on the pattern of Amber Alert to inform public and enforcement agencies to recover a missing child through One Window operations. Recently, the Punjab Police launched an app through ‘Pukkar 15 calls’ at the police station and service centers which are remarkable steps to eradicate child abuse.

Although above mentioned steps are important strides in the right direction, yet more is needed. Some target oriented and sharply focused steps for the eradication of child abuse are extremely important. One of the most important ways of stopping child abuse is to trace it in the first place. Children tend to suffer in silence hence it is necessary to ask them to open up and share. There is a dire need to give the child freedom to express his or her feelings without any fear. We need to educate the children about the good touch and the bad touch. The media should play its pivotal role to spread the awareness and sensitize the people about this evil. National and provincial legislatures need to review existing child protection laws while reforming the existing apparatus. The government should hold seminars and workshops in education institutions to sensitize the children and parents about it. The Ministry of Human Rights should play its role to revamp the national child protection center to identify, prevent and report issue of child abuse.

To sum up, it can be said with utmost certainty that every child deserves a safe childhood and this is an achievable goal. It is a high time to save the children from this scourge of abuse. It is expected that the government will translate its vision of providing children with safe childhood into action. It is the need of the hour that the policy makers of Pakistan put their utmost focus on curbing this menace and providing security and peace to the children of Pakistan. The existing apparatus require reforms for safeguarding the permanent value of chastity enshrined in the Holy Quran. Let us hope for the better future of children in Pakistan.

Author profile

Sajjad Hussain NA-100 Chiniot-II First Alternate Member – 17th Youth Parliament Pakistan

Sajjad Hussain is a Law Graduate from International Islamic University Islamabad. Nowadays he is preparing for the upcoming CSS exams. He writes articles for the Daily Times, Global Space Village and Dayspring Newspaper. He is deeply interested in the current affairs of Pakistan and through joining the 17th YPP looks forward to learning about effective policy making and the parliamentary system of Pakistan.

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Child Abuse in Pakistan-Current Perspective

2018, Perspective

It’s not been long that the case of Baby Zainab from Qasur, a city in Punjab made the headlines in the media. Prior to this incidence cases of sexual abuse of over 200 children from the same city created an uproar in the media and in the country. In the past few years there has been an upsurge in the cases of child abuse reported in the media. The concerns over rising incidence of child abuse and neglect has received global attention. A number of national and international organization have shown serious concerns and are demanding strict measures to tackle the issues of child protection.

Related Papers

Pakistan Journal of Criminology

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ACCB Publishing

Journal Space and Culture, India Open access Journal

Child protection refers to preventing and responding to child abuse and exploitation, that is, child labour, trafficking, commercial sexual exploitation, and harmful customary practices. This paper is about child protection issues in Pakistan, one of the South Asian countries in the Indian sub-continent. Pakistan has agreed to provide children with special protection, as a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the child [UNCRC]. Consequently, it is mandatory for the state to protect children. The authors review both internal and external factors affecting child protection in Pakistan in addition to outlining the challenges faced by South Asian countries in the realm of child protection. It then draws recommendations for efficient child protection system in Pakistan.

Current Medicine Reseach & Practice

Sexual abuse of children is of serious dimensions in India and worldwide. It may present in various forms of physical violence, mental abuse, rape, incest and other pervert sexual behaviours. The exact figures of sexual abuse in children are far greater than reported. Every effort must be made to sensitize the doctors, paramedical staff and general public to actively look for any evidence of abuse in children and report to the concerned authorities. Role of media in highlighting this problem in the right perspective is important. Various strategies for prevention of children from sexual abuse should be planned and stringent punitive measures enforced. Various organisations like World Health Organisation (WHO), United Nations (UN) and India Academy of Pediatrics (IAP) are actively involved in formulation of management guidelines and prevention of sexual abuse in children.

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The concept paper submitted for ISCPAN on behalf of WCH in 2016. This was presented in Galgary, Canada.

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High-level Saudi delegation to Pakistan 

Analyzing iran’s move, food security and climate change, president’s address, a simple buffalo disease, anthrax and toilet cleaners, lahore flourishes with seasonal blooms before eid, uog student leads team as environmental initiative takes root at fc…, us stops un from recognizing palestinian state through membership, tehran plays down suspected israeli attack, signals no retaliation, china’s q1 performance shows stable, optimized business operations: commerce ministry, xi jinping presents flag to pla information support force, china calls us ‘overcapacity’ claims economic bullying, pakistan, new zealand series likely to be affected by rain, new zealand cricket team arrives in islamabad for t20i series, amir, imad make a comeback as pakistan team for nz t20…, army chief hosts iftar for pakistan cricket team, pcb selection committee meets with players in islamabad ahead of nz-series…, report reveals horrifying statistics of child abuse in pakistan.

More than 10 children were subjected to sexual abuse on average every day between January and June, a report by child protection organisation Sahil says.

The report, titled “Six Months Cruel Numbers 2021”, states that the average number of children subjected to abuse has increased by two children per day in comparison with the last year’s January-June report.

“This year, 81 daily national and regional newspapers were monitored during January-June 2021 to collect data on Child Sexual Abuse, Abduction, Missing Children, and the cases of Early Forced Marriages,” read the report.

According to the report, data collected from all four provinces of Pakistan including Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), besides Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), and Gilgit Baltistan (GB), showed that a total of 1,896 cases of child abuse were reported in the period.

Of these, 1,084 cases were of sexual abuse against children, 523 were cases of abduction, 238 cases of missing children, and 51 cases of child marriages.

The report further states that 53% (1,013) of the victims were girls and (883) 47% were boys.

It reveals that “children from the age group 6-15 are most vulnerable to abuse”.

As many as 640 children from the age bracket 11-15 years and 409 children from the age bracket 6-10 fell prey to different types abuse during the last six months, the report adds.

According to the report, in 1,045 cases, the abusers were acquaintances, while they were strangers in 430 cases, relatives in 49 cases, female abettors in 47 cases, seminary/school teachers in 38 cases, neighbours in 37 cases, and family members in 32 cases.

In addition to this, the data reveals that 60% of the total cases were reported from Punjab and 6% from the ICT.

The rest of the cases were reported from other provinces — 26% from Sindh, 5% from KPK, and 3% from Balochistan, and AJK & GB.

Of the total cases, 58% were reported from rural areas and 42% cases from urban areas.

Sahil has been working since 1996 on child protection, especially against child sexual abuse (CSA).

Sahil aims to develop a society and environment where every child should be safe, secure, and protected from abuse, especially from sexual abuse.

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Essay on Curbing Child Abuse in Pakistan with quotations

 If you want to download smart syllabus English essays for 2nd year students, do it here. Another way to get all the essays is to copy them to a new document file. So, this is an essay written "Curbing Child abuse" for 2nd year class 12. This essay has been written in the context of Pakistan. This topic is present in the English smart syllabus of class 12 for 2021 exams.

English essay on Curbing Child Abuse for 2nd year

Although the essay is for 2nd year class 12, yet is equally fit for BA and Associate Degree students. It is also the best length for class 10 students. It can be used in the context of other countries with similar conditions. The outline of the essay is given and quotations are included.

Child abuse essay with quotations

1. What is child abuses

2. Different forms of child abuse

3. Child abuse in Pakistan

4. Curbing the child abuse

5. Govt laws

6. Role of parents and society

7. Conclusion

When the gates of mockery and abuse is opened, the heart becomes a shock absorber ― Ikechukwu Izuakor

Child abuse casts a shadow the length of a lifetime - Herbet Ward

How do you forgive the people who are supposed to protect you? ― Courtney Summers

If you say there is no such thing as morality in absolute terms, then child abuse is not evil, it just may not happen to be your thing.― Rebecca Manley Pippert

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Enhancing children’s awareness of sexual abuse in Pakistan with video literacy interventional cartoons

Faryal razzaq.

1 KSBL, Karachi, Pakistan

Amna Siddiqui

2 The FEEEL (Pt) Ltd, Islamabad, Pakistan

Sana Ashfaq

3 IMDC, Islamabad, Pakistan

Muhammad Bin Ashfaq

4 RIHS, Islamabad, Pakistan

Associated Data

We are very open and assure that we will provide any original data sheets if required. That the data was authentic and collected and analysed through highest research standards. All the other authors contributed towards, data collection or literature review etc. We hope that this research-based video literacy program can be adopted widely to create awareness and understand predatory behaviours and know safety tips for school children.

In presence of violent extremism, children in Pakistan are at high risk for child sexual abuse (CSA), especially after the COVID-19 pandemic. Effective approaches for preventing CSA include enhancing resilience resources in violence-affected societies. Previous research suggests that video-based curricula effectively enhances learning in primary schoolchildren. We pilot tested a video literacy program to build awareness in children, creating a ‘personal safety and space bubble’ as an educational approach for prevention of sexual abuse with an experimental 6 weeks long pre- and post-test design. We conducted qualitative interviews with students, teachers, and parents and identified themes using frequency analyses. Results showed a 96.7% increase in awareness about ‘personal safety and space bubble’. The pilot study is valuable for public health researchers and policy makers seeking to curtail sexual abuse in extreme violence affected Pakistan. Primary schools can use such interventional cartoons to enhance awareness about child sexual abuse.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1057/s41271-023-00408-7.

Key messages

• COVID-19 has exacerbated risk of child sexual abuse in terror-stricken countries like Pakistan that are fighting violent extremism.
• Increasing awareness in children about personal rights, their ‘space bubble’ and safety through animated cartoons proved effective in a Pakistani pilot video literacy program.
• We recommend video literacy programs for primary school curriculum to mitigate risk of sexual abuse, develop emotional resilience and awareness.

Introduction

According to the Human Rights Watch [ 1 ], child sexual abuse (CSA) in Pakistan remains disturbingly common with 6 daily cases reported across Pakistan in the first half of 2020. In the first 6 months of 2020, The News International, a national news outlet, reported at least 173 children had been gang-raped, and 227 had been victims of attempted sexual assault. Of the total reported sexual abuse cases, 47% were boys and 53% were girls [ 2 ]. Cases remain consistently under-reported in Pakistan [ 3 ]. Cultural, religious, legal, state, and gender or sexual barriers exacerbate stigma associated with seeking proper help [ 4 ]. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the incidence of child sexual abuse in Pakistan increased by 30% in 2021 compared to the previous year. Surges in ‘dark web’ (a collection of hidden internet sites only accessible through specialized soft-wares to maintain anonymity) gangs dealing in child pornography and lockdowns during the pandemic were correlated to the increased incidences of child sexual abuse. During this time, children’s internet usage increased, and supervision decreased, while Pakistan closed schools [ 5 ]. Sustainable Social Development Organization (SSDO), a non-governmental organization, reported an increase in rates of domestic violence including CSA almost 400% in one quarter during the COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020 in Pakistan [ 6 ]. During the COVID-19 pandemic, parents in Pakistan reported adverse effects on their children’s mental health, including increased aggression and anxiety [ 7 ].

The term ‘child sexual abuse’ or CSA characterizes a traumatic and abusive experience among younger children and teens including sexual assault, rape, and incest, and commercial sexual exploitation of minors. CSA may include any sort of sexual act between an adult and minor, or between two minors, where one uses power to exert dominance over the other. The term indicates that a minor is coerced or persuaded to perform or engage in any sort of sexual act. CSA also covers acts without contact, such as exhibitionism, being exposed to pornography, voyeurism, and communication in a sexual manner through the phone, other digital devices, or otherwise [ 8 ]. CSA perpetrators include a broad variety of offenders including men and women, strangers, trusted family, friends, family friends, people of all sexual orientations, and from all socio-economic classes and cultural backgrounds. The World Health Organization’s definition of CSA emphasizes the involvement of a child in a sexual act (direct or non-contact) without the child’s full comprehension, informed consent, or developmental preparedness to give consent. Thus, all sexual acts between an adult and minor (even with ill-informed assent) is by definition child sexual abuse [ 9 ]. In most countries, acts described here amount to crimes for which perpetrators may be punished by law.

Another key concept for understanding and responding to child abuse is violent extremism. This term connotes that children’s psychological health is compromised, even if they are passive agents in the affected community. Groups that perpetrate violent extremism may go so far as to recruit children at an impressionable and developmentally vulnerable age and subject them to various forms of abuse. Hence, risks for children sexual abuse increase markedly with the element of violent extremism [ 10 ]. By subjecting children to violence and witnessing its effects, perpetrators also inflict emotional abuse, whereby the children lose the ability to regulate their emotions effectively and may consider violence as an accepted form of retaliatory behavior as they become de-sensitized to it [ 10 , 11 ]. Children at risk of sexual abuse are often subjected to other forms of abuse or neglect, such as insufficient family support, high stress households (due to poverty), parental substance abuse, low levels emotional support and warmth, among others. Not infrequently, these children develop learning or physical disabilities, mental health issues, and may resort to substance abuse. These risks increase as children enter adolescence. Emancipated children or others living out-of-home become vulnerable to sex trafficking and sexual acts exchanged for contributions to meeting basic survival needs such as food, shelter, money, or drugs. Children living in a terror-stricken or conflict-ridden society experience higher risks of sexual abuse than their counterparts in safer settings [ 9 , 10 ]. The psychological trauma and harm that children may encounter while entrenched in affected communities, results in long-term consequences to their physical health, as well as moral and psychological health [ 10 ].

People younger than 19 years of age comprise more than 52% of the Pakistani population and these young people spend most of their time outside their homes in educational establishments. Thus, prevention programs in the early years of school present a viable opportunity for intervention. A review by Ali [ 12 ] postulates a dire need for improving national legislation to protect children from sexual abuse, made more urgent by increasing incidence during the COVID-19 pandemic. Previous research shows that videos, animations, cartoons, and various multimedia approaches are effective for enhancing children’s learning [ 13 – 18 ], including use of multimedia to increase child sexual abuse awareness [ 19 , 20 ]. Multiple stimulatory channels (audio and video) increase information retention [ 21 ]. Traditional classroom learning may be monotonous compared to videos and cartoons for reducing children’s anxiety, stress and managing disruptive behavior in class [ 16 ].

Thus, we undertook a video literacy pilot program for primary school children to build awareness in children about their personal safety and ‘space bubble’ as a means to prevention of sexual abuse. We used the term ‘space bubble’ with the children to make the content more age-appropriate and to avoid any confusion. We used a pre- and post-test experimental design to study the efficacy of the program for enhancing awareness and emotional resilience against sexual harassment, including that provoked by extremist elements in society. This pilot program addresses the issue of violent extremism by measuring awareness in children about their rights while educating them to draw on resilience in these situations to equip them to deal with extremist influences or perpetrators of sexual assault later in life.

Data and methods

Ethical approval and considerations.

We initiated a video literacy program to pilot with a sample population of two primary schools in the Islamabad-Rawalpindi region of Pakistan: one private (Islamabad) and one public (Rawalpindi). We discussed the study design and objectives in detail with the schools’ higher management and they agreed and signed formal agreements and Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs). Due to COVID-19 protocols, the schools alternated between 1 week online and 1 week on campus. Thus, the school needed to provide access to the researchers to join online classes with the students in the presence of the teacher. Schools needed to permit a researcher to sit in the class, observe and record qualitative data from students, teachers, and parents. The school and the concerned teachers had to agree to participate in training for the exercises using the special cartoons. Children and their parents participated only if they agreed to be part of the study and signed consent forms, one for the students, and another for parents. Due to the sensitive content of sexual abuse that could trigger an unwarranted reaction in some students, parents and the teachers ensured that students with mental health issues or who were under treatment would not participate. We also excluded any parents and students who did not want to partake in the study. We minimized researcher-based bias by assuring presence of at least 2 researchers and an assigned teacher for daily observation.

At each stage, we maintained complete transparency with the school administration about the tools and methods. We ensured anonymity of the data and integrity by assigning a code name to every student, parent, and faculty member. We designed the study prior to COVID-19, but the pandemic hit as we began collecting data, thus we adapted the protocol. The schools, and the research grant awarding body granted ethical approval of all protocols.

School selection, enrollment, and randomization

We selected schools in Islamabad/Rawalpindi region of Pakistan due to pilot study’s financial and geographical limitations. In two selected schools, students shared similar socio-economic background, with middle white collar, working-class parents. To ensure sufficient pool of students for randomization into control and experimental groups we sought schools with 80 or more primary school children.

The school administration randomly assigned students aged 9–12 to the experimental ( N  = 120) and control ( N  = 40) groups as displayed in (Table ​ (Table1), 1 ), ensuring that no profiling (assigning good scoring students to experimental group and average scoring students to the control group and vice versa) is done. Experimental and control group students did not interact with each other because one group was on campus and the other at home based on the already-in-place COVID-19 school protocols.

Age and gender distribution of students in experimental and control groups

Intervention: the animated cartoon entitled ‘Right to safety and space bubble’

Our intervention focused on anti-sexual exploitation awareness—keeping in view the cultural and religious sensitivity. We never used the word ‘sexual exploitation’ to avoid controversies and be age-sensitive. ‘Right to safety’ and ‘personal safety’ was used interchangeably, however the conversation with students mostly dealt with the concept of their ‘space bubble’. We consulted specialists, clinical psychologists, neuroscientists, and EI researchers, to develop the storyline, and to anticipate the effect on a victim, and the ‘bystander effect’for our interventional cartoon based curriculum. A senior Professor of Clinical Psychology with years of professional experience in play therapy vetted the final storylines. Animators then worked from these to develop the cartoon. We signed a non-disclosure agreement to ensure that the cartoons would not become available online (to avoid potential for parental intervention that could have biased results). The research team controlled the screen to restrict access to others, including parents.

Measurement scale

We used the 10-question Children’s Knowledge of Abuse Questionnaire [ 22 ] to assess students’ awareness of personal rights and safety both before and after the intervention. Students answered whether they felt the statements were correct or incorrect. We compared the percentages of correct responses in the pre- and post-intervention for both experimental and control students.

Pre- and post- data collection and analysis

We conducted qualitative interviews with students, teachers, and parents of experimental and control groups to understand the pre- and post-test comprehension of child sexual abuse and subjective changes associated with the intervention.

We administered a pre-test questionnaire to the experimental and control groups. To build rapport during the pre-test phase, we began with enjoyable ‘ice breaker’ conversations so the students, then at ease, could talk about their experiences and learning on the sensitive topic.

We then engaged the experimental group in 6 weeks of intervention (30 sessions in 1-h units, 5 days a week). The experimental group students watched the animated cartoon daily, then did exercises including answering questions, drawing, participating ‘in role plays’, discussions, and entertaining activities to keep students engaged and motivated. We used special props we designed to re-enforce the concepts. Practical demonstrations of their ‘space bubble’ i.e. a one-arm distance around them, was repeatedly given. We also administered written and oral exercises we had formulated to enhance the video-literacy curriculum.

At the end of the 6 weeks, we administered post-test questionnaires with students, parents, and teachers. We did not apply any intervention to the control group but did administer the post-test assessment. We also asked parents to report on any change in the behavior of their children during and after the intervention, nothing more.

We then anonymized and analyzed data. We used McNemar’s Test for Paired Samples Proportions for pre- and post-test measures of correct responses using SPSS. We used NVivo to analyze themes from the interviews and Frequency Analyses. We illustrated answers for representative qualitative questions by populating ‘word clouds’ which indicate frequency of answers by size of the words.

We assessed the results of testing with an adapted version of the Children’s Knowledge of Abuse Questionnaire as the percentage of correct answers to simple statements related to questioning good and bad touch, asserting their personal ‘space bubble’ and speaking up against perpetrators. Table ​ Table2 2 shows the correct response percentages both pre- and post-test of students in the experimental and control groups. For the former, all responses to the statements changed after the intervention (all p  < 0.05). The findings suggest that the intervention was effective in dispelling some previously held notions about violation of safety and personal rights. The control group students did not show any difference in their correct response percentages (all p  > 0.05, McNemar’s Test with binomial distribution used, Table ​ Table2 2 ).

Percent of correct responses to the Children’s Knowledge of Abuse Questionnaire (CKAQ) Items in pre- and post-test in experimental ( N  = 120) and control ( N  = 40) groups

*McNemar’s Test for difference in Proportion of correct and incorrect answers in pre- and post-test, N  = 120, p  < 0.05 considered significant

**McNemar’s Test for difference in Proportion of correct and incorrect answers, with binomial distribution, in pre- and post-test, N  = 40, p  < 0.05 considered significant

We posed a baseline qualitative question about the student’s awareness of their personal safety and ‘space bubble’ during the pre-test; none of the students replied ‘yes’. After the intervention, 96.7% of the students in the experimental group replied in the affirmative and were, in varying degrees, able to define the term ‘space bubble’.

The experimental group students also answered qualitative questions related to the cartoon storylines, with moral reasoning prompts. Their responses illustrate their understanding of the concepts and clarity about what to do in situations involving harassment and violation of personal space (See Supplemental Material). Figure  1 contains representative questions and their respective word cloud answers.

Children’s qualitative response word clouds for cartoon-related questions

During the intervention, the students engaged increasingly with the cartoon and discussed their own experiences more openly–about dealing with strangers, feelings of discomfort, and ways they had defended themselves in the past. By the end of the program, the students demonstrated the one-hand distance rule that they had learned during the intervention to indicate the extent of their space bubbles. One student clarified that “Our space bubble is a hand-distance from your left, right, front and back and no one can enter it without our consent.” Towards the conclusion of the program, several students narrated some personal incidents: 3–4 students described how strangers had offered them food outside their schools, and how they had refused. Another student commented on precautions, such as making sure no one would follow students to their homes. Students were also made aware what they can do to save themselves, strategies like assertively saying no, shouting, seeking help from elders and running away from danger etc. were discussed.

We illustrate parents’ qualitative responses in the word clouds in Fig.  2 . When asked “ After the activity, has your child opened up about abuse, bullying or mean behavior by other children during school or otherwise?” of the experimental group parents, 66% replied in the affirmative. Although 89% of the parents interviewed had already said ‘yes’ to “Do you think educating your children about harassment and knowledge about sexual abuse is beneficial?” before the intervention, the percentage rose to 94.6% after. We asked the parents during the post-test “Have you observed any positive changes in your child's behavior during and after the activity?” Although the majority (41.4%) did not observe any notable change, some noted a slight shift; 29.3% of the responding parents indicated that there have been some positive changes. During interviews, several parents affirmed that it was very beneficial for their children to learn about safety and personal rights and that these children felt safe talking to their parents about this topic after the activity.

Parent’s word cloud responses to selected questions in the pre- and post-test evaluation

The teachers also reported differences in children’s behavior regarding the cartoon theme. According to the participating teachers ( n  = 4), 10% of the experimental group children improved very little, 22.5% improved moderately, and the majority (67.5%) of the students improved a great deal. Teachers reported that the students were much more responsive and open to discussing their personal rights and safety bubble after the intervention as many understood the key concepts and had words to express their concerns. After the intervention, about one third of the experimental group students were willing to talk about instances of harassment or exploitation. No such discussions took place during the pre-test, even when researchers asked students about such instances.

The presented study employed a most effective medium, cartoons [ 13 ], to teach students about safety and mitigating sexual exploitation. Teaching primary school children about sexual abuse has been difficult, given a taboo against doing so in Pakistani society. The current project aimed to test children’s knowledge levels about sexual abuse before and after an intervention using a structured quasi-experimental and multi method approach. Previous studies, including that of Hyder and Malik [ 23 ] highlighted the gravity of child sexual abuse in Pakistan and called for awareness and safeguarding the rights of the children. But the majority of these studies were observational, without rigorous research protocols or data collection.

It is the magnitude of the child sexual abuse problem in Pakistan that makes effective intervention so important. According to estimates, as many as 15–25% of children are subjected to sexual abuse. A study of 300 school-going children in the Islamabad/Rawalpindi area found 17% to be survivors of sexual abuse (1 in 5 boys, and 1 in 7 girls), the majority of whom (72%) were under the age of 13 [ 24 ]. Our interviews also revealed that at least one quarter of the experimental group students had experienced some form of sexual abuse or harassment. Using our approach to help students understand the gravity of the situation, we observed that in our sample of 120 students, around 30 students had experienced harassment or perpetrating behavior from strangers. One reason for this difference from previous studies was the inadequacy of sample sizes and study design.

News reports allow us to gauge the scale of child sexual abuse in Pakistan, but apart from those, Pakistan lacks reporting and methodological means to assess the incidents more accurately [ 4 ]. According to a review of child sexual abuse prevalence studies by Townsend and Rheingold [ 8 ], about 1 in 10 children is likely to be sexually abused before their 18th birthday. Girls experience more contact sexual abuse before they turn 18 than boys: 1 in 7 girls and 1 in 25 boys. Prevalence studies raise concerns about the validity and reporter biases [ 9 ]. We believe under-reporting of such abuse in Pakistan’s statistics obscures the magnitude of the problem and inhibits formulation and management of more effective policies.

A non-government organization, Sahil, reviewed national and local news and reported 3445 cases of child abuse in 2017, with an estimate that for 28% of these cases, no one reported them to the police, or the police themselves refused to register them. Such under-reporting is exacerbated by absence of mandatory reporting of sexual abuse in Pakistan. Pakistan has no legal definition of child abuse and neglect; it relies on WHO definitions and classification [ 3 ]. Pakistan struggles to address the problem as do most developing countries in Asia. Hindrances are many: legal, state, religious, cultural, family, and sexual or gender barriers. Rights of children are protected in the Constitution, but because of the stigma, lack of education, lack of human development infrastructure and the children’s vulnerable stage of development, the problem is still prevalent [ 4 ].

Pakistan has an infamous history of violent extremism and efforts to prevent it. The country has served as a front-line location for anti-terrorism efforts but other countries also perceive it as a sponsor for international terrorism, especially after the events known as ‘9/11’ in 2000 [ 25 ]. Pakistan suffers a substantial economic burden based on this history, even as its residents bear the brunt of psychological impact of terror [ 26 ]. Children and young adults are especially vulnerable as targeted populations as terrorists aim attacks on educational institutes [ 27 ]. They are also at a malleable developmental stage of psychological and moral development [ 28 ].

Unfortunately, scarce data exists on the impact of violent extremism on child sexual abuse related incidents in Pakistan. Violent extremism groups recruit and lure children to join them, then subject them to sexual abuse, using coercive powers to exploit their vulnerabilities. Some argue that child sexual abuse is a consequence of violent extremism [10]. Children raised in abusive environments caused by violent extremist groups are more likely to show violent behaviors than children in normal, unaffected households and may become perpetrators of sexual abuse [ 9 , 10 ].

Using education as means to prevent and counter devastating psychological and physical effects of war or terror-related activities on children is very effective [ 29 – 33 ]. An approach used to prevent violent extremism is that of enhancing resilience and cognitive resources in already affected individuals [ 34 , 35 ]. Sas et al. suggest that investing in primary education is beneficial as the children’s behavioral development starts to progress at this stage [ 36 ]. Shah et al. proposed that to improve children’s psychological wellbeing and diminish fear of terrorism in Pakistan, it is useful to engage them in emotional intelligence training with the help of teachers, parents, and counsellors [ 28 ]. Such training helps children to learn how to regulate their emotions when faced with adversity or stressful situation [ 37 – 40 ].

Developmentally, children who are abused may resort to regressive behaviors such as bed-wetting, changes in personality and emotional maturity, withdrawal, sleep and appetite disturbances, and even inappropriate sexual activity. In the long term, child sexual abuse survivors may experience post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression, substance abuse, or suicidal tendencies [ 41 ]. They remain at risk of heightened sexual activity and sexual abuse later in life [ 42 ]. Their neurodevelopmental progress may also be affected. Structural and functional MRI studies have shown substantial differences in the brain scans of child victims of abuse compared to their non-abused peers [ 43 ]. Evaluation of education programs for prevention of sexual abuse to increase children’s knowledge of the risk and enhance their self-protection skills showed positive results [ 44 ]. A study in Malaysia evaluated the level of awareness in children about sexual abuse using persuasive multimedia learning applications. It found benefits of multimedia approaches in increasing awareness and pointed to a lack of educational materials for teaching children about personal safety [ 19 , 45 ]. In an interventional study performed by Naeem et al. [ 41 ] from March through June of 2018, the researchers engaged women primary school teachers in a health education program centered on child sexual abuse. Comprehensive presentations characterized the teaching and the curriculum included videos and written educational materials. A pre- and post-test comparison showed that the health education intervention program was instrumental in dispelling teachers’ misconceptions about child sexual abuse and increased their awareness and knowledge of child sexual abuse [ 41 ].

The Child Protection and Welfare Bureau in Punjab, Pakistan has had some success in enabling curriculum changes in the province but much more can be done in with curricula in educational settings to address the sexual abuse in Pakistan [ 4 ]. Use of multimedia to create awareness about CSA has been effective, however, there is still a lack of well researched educational materials that teach about personal safety [ 19 , 45 ].

This study tried to fill a gap to help students to protect themselves by creating a well-researched video literacy tool validated by subject matter experts. The presented study is helping students to retain the learning from the intervention, a step toward helping students to develop emotional resilience and safeguard themselves. Our data indicate that 96.7% of the experimental cohort students had learned the concept of personal safety and ‘space bubble’ to avoid sexual abuse. Similar studies seldom measure the actual efficacy experimentally. Thus, future studies can build on this pilot, with sound methods and a proven curriculum. Additional programs and curricula improved through future research will help children become more resilient in the long run.

Our research team learned that the students were more responsive during the in-person sessions, rather than during the online sessions. In-person sessions featuring discussions and role-playing create a more favorable atmosphere for increasing open communication. Parents reported that their children were enthusiastic and looked forward to each session. Teachers also looked forward to the classroom sessions and students asked them if the cartoons were available on the internet. We believe that the most important change by the end of the program was the notable increase in children’s capacity to talk about abuse or harassment they had experienced. At the start, no student had heard the term ‘space bubble’, nor did they have any strategies to protect themselves.

We were aware of the sensitive nature of the content, so we developed the cartoons with special focus on the character likeability, their indigenous nature, with relatable dialogues––while capturing the root issues like consent, personal space and learning when to say no. Since these things resonated with the children quite quickly, their learning curve was very impressive. They had embraced the increasingly familiar characters in the cartoons and were starting to embody their positive characteristics. The children’s positive response is evidence that developing relatable and dialogue-driven storylines to convey content related to emotional resilience and awareness of children’s rights is an effective and rewarding experience for children and can serve the education sector. By the end, most of the experimental group students demonstrated their own space bubbles and knowledge about their rights. With CSA cases rising consistently in Pakistan over the years [ 24 ], educating the children as well as giving them a learning medium which they enjoy is vital.

We take a step forward towards understanding child sexual abuse in Pakistan. Our unique research-based intervention to teach children about their personal safety and space bubble, allowed for educating children about where to seek help if they feel uncomfortable around a possible perpetrator. Even a pilot program with 6-weeks of carefully curated research-based content showed clear enhancement in children’s awareness about sexual abuse. We recommend inclusion of this type of video literacy program in the future. Owing to the nature of the experimental design and the restrictions placed on the study design due to COVID-19 protocols, more studies with longer duration, in-person sessions, larger sample sizes and more content addressing more themes of emotional resilience are warranted. This media approach to enhancing emotional resilience may be the most rapid and effective way to address violent extremism for the future generations. An age-appropriate theme and carefully validated content can make the learning experience enjoyable and retain the learning throughout their developmental years.

Conclusions

Results are sufficiently encouraging to warrant a full-scale study to validate the current findings. We recommend that more studies to replicate the results of the pilot study at a larger scale for validity and generalization of the results. Future studies should incorporate students from a wider socio-economic and geographical stratum to inform directions for policy recommendations for curriculum development. Public education campaigns have the potential to destigmatize child sexual abuse, when used in a setting designed to protect children, a setting where adults  are increasingly aware of ways to report, register and initiate response protocols on site. Programs like this can act as case studies of how to navigate methodological and cultural barriers in implementing child sexual abuse awareness in societies where the subject may be sensitive in nature.

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Acknowledgements

The data analysis was done by the firm CBSR.

Biographies

Ph.D. is Managing Director, Centre for Ethical Leadership at the Karachi School of Business and Leadership (KSBL). She is also the Founder and CEO of The FEEEL (Pvt) Ltd.

M.Sc. is Research Executive at The FEEEL (Pvt) Ltd as Research Executive.

is a MBBS doctor  is working as House Officer at Islamabad Medical and Dental College, Pakistan.

is a second year MBBS student at the Rawal Institute of Health Sciences, Pakistan.

This experimental research was funded by the Pakistan Community Resilience Research Network grant (RGIK-14.2) from Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), Pakistan and Creative Learning, USA.

Data availability

Declarations.

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

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Amna Siddiqui, Email: [email protected] .

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Aid group reports surging numbers in child abuse in Pakistan

FILE In this picture taken on May 4, 2017, Kausar Parveen comforts her child who was allegedly raped by a mullah or religious cleric, in Kehror Pakka, Pakistan. A Pakistani aid group dedicated to child protection said Friday, April 29, 2022, its data shows assaults and sexual abuse of children have surged by nearly a third in the country last year. The organization’s director said she fears an increase in “dark web” gangs trading in child pornography and buying and selling children are to blame for the increase, along with lockdowns imposed during the coronavirus pandemic. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary, File)

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ISLAMABAD (AP) — A Pakistani aid group dedicated to child protection said Friday its data shows assaults and sexual abuse of children have surged by nearly a third in the country last year.

The organization’s director said she fears an increase in “dark web” gangs trading in child pornography and buying and selling children are to blame for the increase, along with lockdowns imposed during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Sahil organization said the number of cases increased 30% in 2021, compared to the year before. The group has been tracking child sexual abuse and working on child protection programs for more than 25 years.

In its annual report entitled “Cruel Numbers,” the group says there were 3,852 cases of child sexual abuse in 2021 in Pakistan, including child marriages — or over 10 assaults per day.

Sahil records cases reported daily in more than 80 national and regional publications across Pakistan. Roughly 80% of those cases result in charges, the report said, noting that the vast majority of abuse cases rarely get reported.

According to the data, 54% of the victims were girls and 46% were boys. The sexual abuse of boys mostly took place between the ages of 6 and 16, girls were abused at an even younger age.

Munizae Bano, the organization’s executive director, expressed surprise at the dramatic surge and while she blamed pandemic lockdowns for some of the increase in child abuse, she said criminal activity perpetrated by gangs trading in children are on the rise.

“Absolutely, it is more is active here,” she told The Associated Press, speaking over the phone from Islamabad, the Pakistani capital.

During pandemic measures such as lockdowns and school closures, child abuse rose in many places, in part because with children being out of school, there was less supervision, increasing their vulnerability.

The majority of those committing the assaults were family acquaintances or otherwise known to the children, said the report. “Acquaintances are still the most involved in child sexual abuse, as well as service providers, family members, strangers, and women abettors,” it noted.

In 2020, an investigation by The Associated Press found dozens of Pakistani police reports, known as First Information Reports, alleging sexual harassment, rape and physical abuse by Islamic clerics teaching in madrassas or religious schools throughout Pakistan, where many of the country’s poorest study.

Gannon reported from Kabul, Afghanistan.

A child was sexually abused every two hours in Pakistan this year, NGO says

Islamabad-based NGO records 2,227 cases of child sexual abuse in the country between January and June.

Islamabad, Pakistan – An average of 12 children per day – or one every two hours – were subjected to sexual abuse in Pakistan in 2023, a report by a nongovernmental organisation says.

In its half-yearly report published on Thursday, Islamabad-based NGO Sahil said a total of 2,227 cases of child sexual abuse were reported to the authorities between January and June this year.

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When will there be justice for pakistan’s victims of child abuse, in pakistan’s kasur, child rapes and killings continue unabated, pakistan police: cleric confessed to sexually assaulting student, let us have a proper discussion about child sexual abuse.

The NGO, which has been operating since 1996, compiles its data from newspaper reports as well as from cases directly reported to them. It said there were 1,207 girls and 1,020 boys in the cases it recorded in 2023.

Imtiaz Ahmad Soomrah, the national legal aid coordinator for Sahil, told Al Jazeera that most of the abuse cases involved children between six and 15.

“Over 47 percent of the cases were reported between this age group and among these, more boys were reported to be sexually abused (593) compared to girls (457),” he said.

The NGO’s report said in 912 of more than 2,200 cases they recorded this year, the accused were acquaintances of the child victim.

The Sahil report further said almost 75 percent of these cases were reported from Punjab, the country’s most populous province.

The southern Sindh province had 314 cases while the federal territory of the national capital Islamabad saw 161 cases of child sexual abuse in the first six months of 2023.

Soomrah said Punjab recording the highest number of cases is also attributed to better policing and reporting mechanisms in the province.

“While there is no doubt Punjab remains the most affected province, it is also a fact that we are able to know their figures due to efficient reporting mechanisms in place,” he said.

Soomrah lamented the lack of such information from the southwestern province of Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest and the most impoverished.

“Balochistan had a total of only 24 cases reported in the entire province which is quite unbelievable,” he said.

Soomrah blamed a lack of conviction in cases of child sexual abuse on a weak judicial system and the societal trend of settling the matter out of court.

“Our legal system allows for these heinous crimes to last for years. The conviction rate in children’s sexual abuse cases is not even 2 percent and most of these cases, which do go through legal processes, are settled by compromise between the two parties,” he said.

The Islamabad-based lawyer said this was due to social and economic pressures faced by the families of the victims, and the stigma associated with sexual abuse.

Muhammad Arif Leghari, a senior official at Pakistan’s human rights ministry, told Al Jazeera the government is preparing better mechanisms to protect children from sexual abuse.

“People do complain that our [legal] system is slow, but it has to be understood that we need to fulfil our constitutional and judicial obligations. Courts have to go through the process in detail, where it hears arguments from both sides and has to give time for procedures to be completed so that nobody can claim that law was abused,” he said.

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5 japanese workers in pakistan escape suicide blast targeting their van. a pakistani bystander dies.

Associated Press

Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Pakistani investigators examine a damaged van at the site of a suicide attack in Karachi, Pakistan, Friday, April 19, 2024. A suicide bomber detonated his explosive-laden vest near a van carrying Japanese autoworkers, who narrowly escaped the attack Friday that wounded three bystanders in Pakistan's port city of Karachi, police said. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)

KARACHI – A suicide bomber targeted a van carrying Japanese nationals in Pakistan's port city of Karachi on Friday, police said. The Japanese nationals escaped unharmed but officials later said one bystander was killed.

Initially, police said the van was heading to an industrial area where the five Japanese nationals worked when it came under attack, local police chief Arshad Awan said. Police escorting the Japanese returned fire, killing a second attacker, the bomber's accomplice, he said.

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“All the Japanese who were the target of the attack are safe,” Awan added.

Police had initially said the five worked at Pakistan Suzuki Motors but later corrected that statement, saying it was another factory.

Images on local news channels showed a damaged van as police officers arrived at the scene. The three passersby who were wounded in the attack were taken to the hospital, where one later died. The two others were said to be in stable condition.

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif denounced the attack in separate statements, praised police for their quick response and vowed to eliminate terrorism. They also offered prayers for the casualties.

The Foreign Ministry confirmed the Japanese nationals were unhurt and said it “strongly condemns this heinous act of terrorism. All necessary measures will be taken to bring the perpetrators to justice.”

“Pakistan remains committed to ensuring the safety of foreign nationals residing in the country," the ministry said.

The ministry said two Pakistani nationals were killed in Friday's attack, which contradicted the statements from police and hospital officials who said one of the three wounded died. The discrepancy could not immediately be reconciled.

The van was given a police escort following reports of possible attacks targeting foreigners working in Pakistan on various Chinese-funded and other projects, said Tariq Mastoi, a senior police officer. He said a timely and quick response from the guards and police foiled the attack and both attackers were killed.

No one immediately claimed responsibility, but suspicion is likely to fall on separatists or the Pakistani Taliban, who have stepped up attacks on security forces in recent years.

Insurgents have also targeted Chinese working in Pakistan on projects relating to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor , which includes a multitude of megaprojects such as road construction, power plants and agriculture.

In March, five Chinese and their Pakistani driver were killed when a suicide bomber in northwestern Pakistan rammed his explosive-laden car into a vehicle when they were heading to the Dasu Dam, the biggest hydropower project in Pakistan, where they worked.

Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, is the capital of southern Sindh province.

Separately, an Afghan Taliban religious scholar, Mohammad Omar Jan Akhundzada, was killed on Thursday by gunmen inside a mosque in Quetta, the capital of Pakistan's southwestern Baluchistan province, a local police officer Akram Ullah said.

No one claimed responsibility for that attack.

Chief Afghan Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid on Friday denounced the killing of Akhundzada, saying he taught at a jihadi seminary in Afghanistan's Kandahar province and was a member of the Taliban oversight committee of Islamic scholars.

Many Afghan leaders and scholars lived in Quetta and elsewhere in Pakistan before the Afghan Taliban seized control of Afghanistan in mid-August 2021 as U.S. and NATO forces withdrew. Most then went back and it was unclear why Akhundzada was still in Pakistan.

Associated Press writer Abdul Sattar contributed to this story from Quetta, Pakistan.

Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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