ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is witnessing a harrowing rise in violence against children, with 7,608 cases reported across the country so far in 2024 – an average of 21 incidents per day –according to a new report by the Sustainable Social Development Organisation (SSDO).

The report highlights a deep-rooted child protection crisis and exposes critical failures in the legal system, with conviction rates for most categories of abuse remaining under 1%.

These alarming findings come from SSDO's latest publication, Mapping Study on Violence Against Children in Pakistan 2024, which draws on data obtained from provincial police departments through Right to Information (RTI) laws.

The cases reported span a range of violence, including physical and sexual abuse, kidnapping, child trafficking, child marriage, and child labour.

Of the total cases, 2,954 reported sexual abuse, 2,437 reported kidnapping, 895 were related to child labour, 683 were physical abuse cases, 586 were incidents of child trafficking, and 53 were cases of child marriage.

While child trafficking and child labour cases saw relatively higher conviction rates of 45% and 37% respectively, the vast majority of cases – including sexual abuse, kidnapping and child marriage – saw negligible or no convictions, with child marriage cases resulting in zero convictions nationwide.

The report notes that the conviction needs to be verified because, as per the Prevention of Trafficking in Persons Act 2018, the punishment in case of child trafficking is a Rs1 million fine and 10 years of imprisonment.

However, in most cases, the judiciary does not enforce punishments outlined in the PTPA, opting instead to impose nominal fines of a few thousand rupees and release the accused.

Punjab reported the highest number of child abuse cases, with 6,083 incidents - including 2,506 cases of sexual abuse and 2,189 kidnappings - but these resulted in only 28 and 4 convictions, respectively. The province also recorded 455 cases of physical abuse, leading to just 7 convictions.

Child trafficking accounted for 457 cases, with 267 resulting in convictions, and 450 cases of child labour led to 66 convictions. However, none of the 26 child marriage cases reported in Punjab led to any convictions.

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa followed with 1,102 cases, including 208 physical abuse cases and 366 sexual abuse cases, yet none of these resulted in convictions.

The province reported 93 kidnapping cases, six child trafficking cases, three cases of child marriage, and 426 child labour cases, with convictions occurring only in the child labour category, totalling 267.

Sindh recorded 354 cases in total, including 19 cases each of physical and sexual abuse, 152 kidnappings, 121 trafficking cases, and 24 cases of child marriage—none of which resulted in a single conviction.

In Balochistan, 69 cases were reported, including one of physical abuse, 63 sexual abuse cases, and 43 kidnappings. The province reported just two convictions each for sexual abuse and kidnapping, with no convictions for the remaining categories.

SSDO Executive Director Syed Kausar Abbas said that the data was collected by using the Right of Access to Information laws of the respective provinces from the police departments.

He stressed that the reported numbers represent only the visible tip of a much larger problem, with many cases going unreported.

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