In the first six months of current year, 2,227 children were sexually abused, according to a report published on Thursday by Sahil — a non-profit organisation that advocates for the protection of children.
The organisation, which has advocated against child abuse since 1996, stated that the “purpose of the data is to provide facts and figures about child sexual abuse (CSA) and its dynamics and to contribute to existing information on CSA in Pakistan”.
It should be remembered that these statistics are estimates based on media reporting, and the true counts could be far higher. Sahil stated in the previous year that a total of 4,253 instances of child abuse—of which 50% were sexual abuse—were recorded across the entire 2022.
The overall number of victims of abuse in 2023 was 2,227, up from 2,211 during the same time period in the previous year. More than half of the 2,227 victims, or 54%, were female. While there were 1,207 incidents of abuse of girls, the number of abuse cases of boys had increased to 1,020.
According to the “Six Months Cruel Numbers 2023” study, boys (693 more) than girls (457) between the ages of 6 and 15 were molested.
“The data reveals that this year, similarly to last year, the age group 6-15 years is the most vulnerable age group,” the report says.
“Out of the total cases, 47pc were in this age group (6-15 years). The graph shows victims of CSA are (593) boys and (457) were girls,” the report said.
