The horrific Kasur child abuse scandal shocked the nation this August, but a new study titled “The State of Children in Pakistan” shows why this shock was many years too late.The study, conducted by Children’s Complaints Office in Islamabad and funded by the UN Children’s Fund (Unicef), finds that though laws exist, the severe lack of implementation renders them essentially ineffective. The criminal justice system is also quite unfriendly to child rights and the unavailability of data on the prevalence of child abuse, especially when it occurs within the family, is a major challenge to ensuring child safety. Using data from child rights NGO Sahil, the study shows that 3,508 cases of sexual abuse were reported in 2014 – an increase of 17% over 2013 figures. The report finds that the Pakistan Penal Code covers crimes related to sexual assault, including abduction, rape, gang-rape molestation, murder after sexual assault, etc. But what makes it inadequate to the needs of children is that none of these penal provisions is specific to cases where the victim is a child. None of the codes deal with sexual consent, a key violation of rights in child abuse cases. The child rights NGO Sahil has once again done much of the legwork that underpins the report, which shows an increase of 17 per cent in reported cases over the 2013 reporting year. Although the report is to a degree a statement, yet again of the blindingly obvious, it is one that bears repeating again and again, louder and more forcefully every time until there is such a din that the ossified and unwilling state finally gets dragged into a state of awareness and responsibility. Hiding behind culture has to be made unacceptable, and cultural norms themselves must be challenged at every juncture. Just because a section of society has abused young boys for centuries does not mean that it is to be allowed to abuse them in perpetuity. Children are unsafe in school, the home and the workplace. Who cares? Few, seemingly.
pk.shafaqna.com
