The rape and killing of the eight-year-old Zainab Ansari in Kasur, Punjab, in the first week of January has shocked Pakistan, triggering both massive protests against the government’s inaction and debates on how to tackle the child abuse problem. Zainab’s killer is yet to be identified. The police say the killer has raped and killed at least five other girl children since 2015 in the Kasur area. Police have conducted DNA tests of tissue samples obtained from about 300 suspects without any success.
Kasur is a small city near Lahore. The city has been in the news for the past few years for all the wrong reasons. In 2015, a child pornography ring was busted in the Hussain Khanwala area. Police claimed to have seized more than 400 porn videos of at least 250 children. Several people were arrested but only two have been convicted so far. The children abused were left unattended. No counselling happened despite promises by the Punjab government. Today, most families of the abused children have left the village. Those still living there claim that they are being harassed by relatives of the arrested suspects.
According to SAHIL, an NGO working against child abuse, the cases that came to light are only the tip of the iceberg. More than 100 cases of child sexual abuse have been reported in the first two weeks of this month, the group says. The total number of reported child abuse cases in 2017 stood at 4,139, bringing the daily average to 11, according to SAHIL’s analysis.
Many activists, showbiz celebrities and politicians came out against child abuse. But activists say unless society recognises that the problem exists and the government becomes more vigilant in preventing such cases and punishing the culprits, real change will not happen. Education trainer Aahang Nazo Pirzada said she had been going to schools for over two decades to convince educationists to include awareness against child abuse in their curricula. “The problem is that most people confuse it with sex education in Pakistan. I tell them it’s not about that. It’s about protecting your children from predators and criminals. After the Kasur child pornography scandal and Zainab’s case, schools have approached us to provide training to children,” she said.
Creating awareness
Though the government in Punjab is yet to make it part of the syllabus, the school education department has compiled a guidebook for parents, teachers and children to protect them from abuse. According to the Child Protection Bureau, more than 90% of abuse is usually done by relatives or neighbours.
Singer Shehzad Roy has been leading the effort to create awareness on child abuse. “We have made this subject a taboo rather than addressing the problem. So when a child reports any abuse to the parents, instead of taking action, they ask the kids not to speak about it as most abusers are relatives or neighbours. This has an adverse effect on them,” he said at a press conference in Karachi. He said parents should talk to the children about “good touch and bad touch”.
Child abuse is common in religious schools as well. An investigation by the Associated Press stated that thousands of incidents of sexual abuse happen in madrasas but are not reported. Both the Religious Affairs Ministry and the Child Protection Bureau acknowledge that the problem exists but when such cases come up they go on the defensive. Their claim is that it happens in every society. This attitude, child rights activists say, offers little help in tackling the problem.
Mubashir Zaidi writes for The Hindu and is based in Karachi
