Islamabad : Sahil is working on child protection with the special focus on child sexual abuse since 1996. Sahil’s aims to develop a protective environment for children free from all forms of violence especially child sexual abuse. Sahil has also provided legal, emotional and psychological support to the victims.
This year 81 daily national and regional newspapers monitored from January-June 2024 to collect the data of Child Sexual Abuse, Abduction, Missing, and the cases of Early Marriages.
Sahil six months report is compiled on bases of the data collected from 81 different newspapers of all four provinces including Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), and Gilgit Baltistan (GB).
Sahil’s Six Months Cruel Numbers data shows that, a total number of 1630 cases of child abuse reported from across the country.
In the first six months of January-June 2024, 862 cases of child sexual abuse, 668 cases of Abduction, 82 cases of Missing Children, and 18 cases of Child Marriages were reported.
This year 48 cases of pornography after sexual abuse were also recorded.
Six-monthly data reveals that out of the total reported cases, (962) 59% of victims were girls and (668) 41% were boys.
The data also shows that the age group of 6-15 years is continuously most vulnerable to abuse. A total number of 693 children from the age bracket of 6-15 years, 94 children from the age brackets of 0-5 years, 231 children from the age bracket 16-18 years, and in 612 cases age of the victims were not mentioned.
In the year 2024, January-June, the abuser involved in 47% of the total cases were acquaintances, 18% cases were strangers, while in 9% acquaintance along with stranger were committed crime against children.
In the first six months of 2024, 78% of the total cases were reported from Punjab and 6% from the ICT. The rest of the cases were reported from other provinces including 11% cases from Sindh, 3% cases from KPK, and 2% cases from Balochistan, AJK & GB.
This year out of the total 2024, reported cases, 44% cases from urban areas and 56% cases from rural areas.
Violence Against Women- a New Chapter
For this year Sahil has monitored the cases of Violence Against Women. A total number 1732 cases were reported that includes different forms of violence, such as murder, suicide, abduction, rape, honor killing, and tortured.