The hidden shame of Pakistan is sexual abuse of children has been growing alarmingly countrywide on the back of criminal unawareness of the issue, avoidance to discuss its related matters, lack of a mechanism of dealing the curse and absence of authorities and punitive measures in the legal system.
Speakers at the seminar "The open secret: Child Sexual Abuse in Pakistan" held at Habib University on Saturday said the incidents of sexual abuse of children are prevalent globally with no exception of Pakistan but developed countries are controlling this crime through dealing with the issue socially and legally as compared to our state and society which are still shy away to discuss this matter as taboo.
Resulting, statistics of Human Right Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) suggested the rise of reported cases in Pakistan almost every year since 2010 from 2,250 to 3,005. The incident of Kasur is an eye-opener of the society but it is tipof the ice-berg as believed many. The prevalence of this crime is reported relatively high in urban areas compared to rural out of which Punjab is rated as worst followed by Sindh and different provinces.
There is no accurate data related to this crime whereas not proper legislations were done to address this menace of society but there are two passive authorities working on children protection in Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Speakers of the view that incident of Kasur should not be forgotten because it is a persistent issue which our society now raise to address collectively and individually with different aspects. Dr Aysha Mehnaz of Dow University of Health Sciences said the incident of Kasur involved a commercial aspects which was poverty hence victims and their parents were aware of the crime but they were being exploited for being poor or surpassed under influential.
Similarly, there are many stakeholders were part and parcel of the heinous crime of sexual abuse and production of child pornographic material including international stakeholders which should be punished including all convicted criminals in this case.
Commercial aspect is one of the case in which children are sexually abused and their parents remain silent witnessing gruesome acts in front of them, Dr Mehnaz said. Abuse is also more common within family structure in which a child is abused by close relatives but kept in secret by family members due to dependence on predators.
There is need to enforce available laws of child abuse properly with special authorities dealing this issue whereas new laws should be promulgated to reduce the crime, protecting kids and punishing criminals, she further said. Asad Butt, Vice Chair HRCP said the state should play its important role to protect its growing generation but it should provide rehabilitation and compensation to victims as well. He said society has been hypercritic in nature criticising unduly while keeping silence on the issues which are creating social and moral break up in the society. There are many cases of child abused which were unexplainable as biological, close relatives and friends are involved in it
Dr Murad Moosa Khan said the abuse of children should be controlled also through addressing its fallouts which is common stressed in the society among males due to unmet of biological needs and frustration but individuals should be educated that legitimate marital ties are its proper way though these are made easier in the society. He mentioned the social unrest could not be reduced until we address the fundamental root causes whereas in our stressed society people needs healthy entertainment to vent out their frustration in unharmed way.
Ayesha Mian, and educationist and psychiatrist, said the society should take an initiative for raising awareness of the issues to keep their children protected from predators rather than waiting for the state to take measures in this regard. The governance to tackle indispensable so do social reforms in the society but it can be done by individual and group of educated people through different aspects, she said.
Speakers urged that media and university should highlight the issues to the masses and students of different ages. The children and parents should be enlightened and given training related to what is good touch and bad touch keeping their age groups.
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