Almost 18,000 cases of child abuse reported in Pakistan since 2013

"Since 2013, 17,862 cases of child abuse have been reported in the country — 10,620 of which involved girls, while 7,242 involved boys."

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Ministry of Human Rights on Wednesday shared alarming figures regarding the prevalence of child abuse in the country.
In a written reply submitted to Pakistan’s National Assembly, the ministry said that, since 2013, 17,862 cases of child abuse have been reported in the country — 10,620 of which involved girls, while 7,242 involved boys.
The data was compiled by the NGO Sahil. The home departments of Pakistan’s provincial governments had been asked to help with data provision, but, the ministry said, “their response is still awaited.”
The ministry’s reply to lawmakers stated that 13,267 of those cases were registered, but the courts had convicted only 112 people.
Minister for Human Rights Mumtaz Ahmad Tarar told the house that the government has ratified various international conventions for the protection of children, including the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), in 1990 and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Convention on Preventing, Combating Trafficking in Women and Children for Prostitution, in 2002.
Farshad Iqbal, manager of research and communication at the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC), told Arab News: “There is a need to develop a mechanism at governmental level to gather data about child abuse cases. Only then can we effectively plan how to deal with the problem.”
Iqbal said that the numbers reported by the ministry are unlikely to reflect the true magnitude of the problem.
“We think it’s under-reported data,” he said. “But it is still an alarming figure.”