Male, Oct 3 (IANS) Pakistan’s child-protection failure is most visible in the gap between detecting abuse and preventing children from being exposed to danger, a report has stated.
It noted that the authorities can register an FIR, arrest a suspect, establish a committee, introduce a policy, announce a new framework or condemn an atrocity, but none of these measures can change the fact that the child had already been put at risk.
Citing 1,914 cases of child abuse across Pakistan documented by Islamabad-based organisation Sahil, a report in 'Maldives Insight' said that these figures are not merely a criminal statistic, but a grim reflection of failures at multiple levels — from families and schools to communities, social services, police and the justice system.
“A child’s home is supposed to be the place where danger ends. In Pakistan, the latest figures suggest that for thousands of children, it can be where the danger begins. During the first six months of 2026, 1,914 cases of child abuse were reported across the country. More than half involved sexual abuse, while hundreds more concerned abduction, missing children, child marriage and sexual exploitation. Nearly half of the reported incidents occurred inside the victims’ own homes,” the report detailed.
It noted that the data reveal the continued prevalence of serious child abuse, underscoring the failure of existing protection mechanisms to prevent such violations.
The report cited the recent death of a one-and-a-half-year-old girl in Karachi’s Qayyumabad area as a particularly disturbing example of how vulnerable children remain even in familiar surroundings.
Police arrested a teenage relative after the toddler died while undergoing treatment following an alleged sexual assault.
The FIR said the relative was a frequent visitor to the family home and had taken the child outside on the pretext of buying her something, the report mentioned.
It highlighted that the case drew attention because the alleged perpetrator was not a stranger but a relative who had close and regular access to the family.
“The threat is not confined to dark streets or unknown strangers. It can exist behind the doors of homes, within extended families and inside relationships that children are expected to trust. Pakistan has laws, institutions and reporting mechanisms designed to protect children. What the latest evidence cannot establish is that those systems are keeping children safe before violence occurs,” the report noted.
--IANS
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