There is no gentle way to say this: Pakistan is failing its children. According to Sahil\u2019s Cruel Numbers 2024 report, at least 3,364 cases of child abuse were reported last year alone. That\u2019s nine children abused every single day: in homes, schools, mosques, and on the internet. Children\u2013some as young as five months\u2013are being robbed of safety, dignity, and in too many cases, life itself. The response? Muted at best. Indifferent at worst. Let\u2019s call this what it is: a national emergency buried under a national silence.
\nThe latest figures show Punjab accounting for 78% of reported cases. But make no mistake. This is a nationwide rot. A child\u2019s vulnerability knows no province. In 53% of cases, the victims were girls; in 47%, boys. And in more than half, the perpetrators weren\u2019t strangers but trusted adults: relatives, neighbors, religious instructors. This isn\u2019t just abuse. It\u2019s betrayal. Systemic. Repeated. Enabled by our refusal to talk.
\nWhat\u2019s worse? Conviction rates remain under 1%. Fewer than one in 100 cases sees justice. Courts delay. Police shrug. Lawmakers move on to the next press conference. When a society can\u2019t protect its children, it doesn\u2019t just lose its innocence. It forfeits its moral legitimacy.
\nAnd if the physical world has failed them, so too has the digital. Between 2020 and 2022, Pakistan ranked among the top three countries globally for child sexual abuse content online, with 5.4 million reports flagged to international watchdogs. We have become exporters of abuse in the eyes of the world. Is there a greater shame?
\nAnd yet. No outrage. No special parliamentary session. No emergency media coverage. Where are the sermons, the hashtags, the protests?
\nBecause pleading with the government has led us nowhere, this editorial is an indictment of all of us. For tolerating a culture that jokes about trauma, silences victims, and normalizes cruelty. For every time we stayed quiet when a child cried in the next room. For every school that dismissed a whisper. For every mosque that turned the other way.
\nThe time for soft language is over. We need dedicated child protection courts. Swift punishments. Funding for trauma recovery. A digital watchdog with teeth. And most of all, we need a collective national reckoning.
\nBecause if we can\u2019t guarantee a child\u2019s safety, we don\u2019t deserve to call ourselves a nation. Not one worth saving. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There is no gentle way to say this: Pakistan is failing its children. According to Sahil\u2019s Cruel Numbers 2024 report, at least 3,364 cases of child abuse were reported last year alone. That\u2019s nine children abused every single day: in homes, schools, mosques, and on the internet. Children\u2013some as young as five months\u2013are being robbed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-477069","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-editorial"},"yoast_head":"\n