Alarming increase in child abuse cases in Pakistan’s Punjab province, 70 per cent of victims are boys

At least seventy per cent of child abuse victims in Pakistan’s Punjab province during the first five months of 2023 were boys, an official report said on Friday. Around 1,400 incidents of child abuse (rape) were reported in Punjab during the first five months of this year and of them — 965 (70 per cent) victims were boys and 435 (30 per cent) girls, a report by the Punjab government’s Home Department said. there has been a ‘significant increase’ in child abuse crime rate in the province of 120 million people, mostly against boys. The department collected the region-wise data of child abuse in Punjab using the field staff and stated that the Rawalpindi region and Lahore city reported lowest crime against children than other divisions of the province, the Down reported. It said that of the perpetrators facing trial in courts, 55 per cent are neighbours of the victims, 32 per cent are strangers, and 13 per cent are relatives. It pointed out many key factors as prime barriers in controlling sexual crime against children in Punjab, it added.