PESHAWAR: It was a hot sunny day last June, when sixyear-old Rabia (not her actual name), went out to play with her friends in the streets on the outskirts of Peshawar. Little did she know that her neighbour, a 14-year-old boy, who had just the other day offered her chocolates, would entice her and take her to an abandoned house for a sexual assault.

A sobbing Rabia returned to tell her trauma to her mother, who immediately informed her husband. Her husband dithered, not knowing what to do. Later he informed the police. The boy absconded but was arrested by the police. Now his parents were beseeching the minor’s family for forgiveness.

The incident showcases a disturbing trend of child molestation and rape cases across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Official data reveals 277 cases of child rape and molestation in 2020 including 127 cases involving rape and 150 cases linked to unnatural offences. The figure has largely remained static, so to speak. The victims were mainly boys.

Since 2021, the figure of such crime continues to hover around the 350 mark a year after, although police and social activists say many cases remain unreported due to reluctance on part of the parents fearing shame, embarrassment and social stigma.

In contrast to this, however, convictions have been dismally low, from seven per cent in 2021 to barely four per cent in 2023.

Legal experts and police attribute this to lack of forensic evidence, witnesses and reluctance by the victims’ families to pursue their cases or pressure to reconcile.

The federal government launched an app in 2020 called “Zainab Alert”. Subsequently, it enacted The Zara Act to establish the Zainab Alert Response and Recovery Agency. It is named after a seven-year-old girl Zainab, who was abducted, raped and murdered in January, 2018, in Kasur, Punjab.

This app can be used to report missing and abducted youngsters under the age of 18 years. The app allow users to upload the photo of child, provide information of his/ her disappearance.

The act also provides a process for the local police department to issue an emergency alert using emergency broadcast system on mobile phones within 20km region, where the child was last seen. Cases uploaded on app throughout the country since 2020 are 583, indicating, yet again, reluctance on part of the victims’ families to report the matter to the police.

But some experts argue the case for parents to educate children how to protect themselves from sexual predators.

Government officials say that parents’ inability to educate their children about their vulnerability and how to protect themselves in case of any such incident is a contributing factor in the growing trend of sexual abuse.

“Children being innocent may not discern what is beneficial or harmful to them. The lack of education, financial constraints, and social taboos leave parents uncertain whether or not and how and where to report such incidents,” said an expert.

That the law has not been able to address the issue bears testimony to the low conviction rate in such heinous crimes. A major problem in convictions arises from out of court compromises often initiated by falsehoods due to social taboos, which also undermine the investigation.

Published in Dawn, August 30th, 2024